''In Our Translated World: Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry'' is a

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

(

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

and

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

) anthology of

Tamil poetry Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...

, published in 2013. This collection contains poems by 78 Tamils, of whom 21 are women. The authors are from many countries, including

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Similarly, their backgrounds and experiences are diverse, described as being "women and men, young and old, Hindu, Muslim and Christian". In a note about the importance of this work, Professor Sascha Ebeling of the Department of South Indian Studies,

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

stated the following: "Never before has an anthology of Tamil poetry in translation offered such a broad perspective, and no other book to date demonstrates so well the fact that over the past two decades Tamil literature has become a truly global affair.". ''In Our Translated World'' is the result of a project undertaken by Tamil Literary Garden with funding from Ontario government's Trillium Foundation and others. It was edited by Chelva Kanaganayakam, professor in the Department of English and the Director for the Centre for South Asian Studies at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. This book was released on 9 March 2014 at the Scarborough Convention Centre.

Selection and translation

The selection committee consisted of poets, writers and academics. This included Mohanarangan, Sukumaran, A. Yesurasa, Selvam Arulanantham, Usha Mathivanan, Thirumavalan, S. Yuvarajan, Latha and Annar. The works were translated by Anushiya Ramaswamy, Maithili Thayanithy and M. L. Thangappa.

Themes

The poems in this anthology cover a range of themes. The "struggle between

modernity Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period (the modern era) and the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norm (social), norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissancein the " ...

and

tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

", "transition from an oppressive

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

culture to urban spaces",

urbanization Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly t ...

, " Sri Lankan Tamils political upheaval and its consequent social and cultural disintegration", sexual assault, violence, poverty, women issues,

emigrant Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

experiences and

existentialism Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...

are major themes covered in this collection.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{Cite web , title = Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry (Book Review) , website=sangam.org , publisher = Ilankai Tamil Sangam , year = 2013 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://sangam.org/contemporary-global-tamil-poetry/ {{Cite web , title = In Our Translated World , website = tamilculture.ca , publisher = TamilCulture , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://tamilculture.ca/translated-world/ , archive-date = 2014-03-23 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140323200447/http://tamilculture.ca/translated-world/ , url-status = dead {{Cite web , title = In Our Translated World: Contemporary Global Tamil Poetry , website = tsarbooks.com , publisher = TSAR Books , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://www.tsarbooks.com/TSAR_InOurTranslatedWorld.htm , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140321040002/http://www.tsarbooks.com/TSAR_InOurTranslatedWorld.htm , archive-date = 2014-03-21 , url-status = dead {{Cite web , title = வாசிப்பும், யோசிப்பும் 37 : எமது மாறிய உலகினுள் (In Our Translated World) , website = geotamil.com , publisher = Pathivukal , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://www.geotamil.com/pathivukalnew/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1936:-37-in-our-translated-world&catid=28:2011-03-07-22-20-27&Itemid=54 , archive-date = 2014-03-23 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140323200305/http://www.geotamil.com/pathivukalnew/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1936:-37-in-our-translated-world&catid=28:2011-03-07-22-20-27&Itemid=54 , url-status = dead {{Cite web , title = Interview with the editor and Prof. Chelva Kanaganayakam and Tamil Poet and Prof. Cheran , website=youtube.com, publisher = TSAR Books , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6q4xECeSDI&sns=fb {{Cite web , title = Scott Edward Anderson about In Our Translated World , website=seapoetry.wordpress.com, publisher = TSAR Books , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://seapoetry.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/poems-of-displacement-love-and-other-modern-tamil-concerns/ {{Cite web , title = Monsoon Journal Article about In Our Translated World , website = monsoonjournal.com , publisher = TSAR Books , year = 2014 , access-date = 2014-03-23 , url = http://www.monsoonjournal.com/ArticleFiles/Archives/Arch_on_1-Mar-2014/Archive_1-Mar-2014.pdf , archive-date = 2014-03-25 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140325010241/http://www.monsoonjournal.com/ArticleFiles/Archives/Arch_on_1-Mar-2014/Archive_1-Mar-2014.pdf , url-status = dead 2013 poetry books 2013 anthologies Tamil poetry Poetry anthologies Canadian anthologies Canadian poetry collections

Selection and translation

Themes

See also

References