CompleteMartialArts.com - When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others

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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 894.82713 EAN: 9780520080690 ISBN: 0520080696 Label: University of California Press Manufacturer: University of California Press Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 158 Publication Date: 1994-04-15 Publisher: University of California Press Studio: University of California Press
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Editorial Reviews: How is it that this woman's breasts glimmer so clearly through her saree? Can't you guess, my friends? What are they but rays from the crescents left by the nails of her lover pressing her in his passion, rays now luminous as the moonlight of a summer night? These South Indian devotional poems show the dramatic use of erotic language to express a religious vision. Written by men during the fifteenth to eighteenth century, the poems adopt a female voice, the voice of a courtesan addressing her customer. That customer, it turns out, is the deity, whom the courtesan teases for his infidelities and cajoles into paying her more money. Brazen, autonomous, fully at home in her body, she merges her worldly knowledge with the deity's transcendent power in the act of making love. This volume is the first substantial collection in English of these Telugu writings, which are still part of the standard repertoire of songs used by classical South Indian dancers. A foreword provides context for the poems, investigating their religious, cultural, and historical significance. Explored, too, are the attempts to contain their explicit eroticism by various apologetic and rationalizing devices. The translators, who are poets as well as highly respected scholars, render the poems with intelligence and tenderness. Unusual for their combination of overt eroticism and devotion to God, these poems are a delight to read.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: If I could turn back time... Comment: When God is a Customer is a delightful journey to another time and culture and while reading, makes you wish you could be part of that period. Readers and lovers of western poetry will be enthralled by the use of language and device however; consciousness of these become lost in the humour, passion, colour, tenderness and eroticism of life expressed by the 'women' (the poems infact are written by males taking on the female voice). I loved this book and carry it with me. The editors have provided an invaluable treasure to cross-cultural literature and the everyday poetry reader and I thank them for their insight and trust that this work will be valued by westerners. More please. More Reviews