Pebble

Meenakshi, our acclaimed Tamil poet, has just brought out a bi-lingual collection of her poetry to coincide with Auroville’s 50th birthday. Pebble contains one or two poems that have been anthologised elsewhere – like the lovely I am the golden flame – but many are new, at least to this reviewer.

Meenakshi has a poetic temperament that encompasses many aspects of life. It includes social issues like bonded child labour, as in the poem They walk on damp ground:

We appeal to you

With broken hearts

We want just a corner

On the streets’ side pavement

Where we should be free

From the drunken wolves…

There is also her sensitive celebration of the feminine:

A woman and a river

Are twins.

For she walks like a river

Lies down like a river

She is now here

And now there.

She is, and is not.

But perhaps Meenakshi is most associated with her lyrical nature poetry that draws upon a rich Tamil literature on the subject. Our lovers is a wonderful example of the intimate intensity with which she experiences the natural world:

The bamboo shoot

Dips its fingers

Into my ribs’ side.

The life breath of the breeze

Covers me.

A single ray of the sun

Embraces me and flees away.

Oh, how many lovers I have!

This is a very charming collection, marred only by some erratic punctuation and a few infelicities and misspellings in the English translation.

Pebble by R.Meenakshi. English translation by M.L. Thangappa. Dream Space Publications, India, 2018. Rs 150, $6.