Literary Hypnotism: A Rare Interview with Lee Siegel
ISBN 978-1944521127, May 19, 2021
Softcover, 146 pages, 6 x 6 in.
ISBN: 978-1944521141
Kindle Print Replica Edition
Lee Siegel’s English translation of the Amarushataka, an aristocratic collection of eighth-century amorous Sanskrit poems, is at once playful and erudite, amusing and poignant, carnal and sublime. The stanzas are little scenes from a panoramic comedy of erotic love.
The characters: Innocent girls and passionate ladies; devoted husbands and faithless rogues; female confidantes who help, console, or betray their friends.
The plot: First love, sexual union, separation (because of parents, friends, or the woman’s jealous anger because the man has another mistress, or perhaps he must go on a journey), reunion, re-separation, re-reunion.
The theme is the delight of the game, the deliciousness of courtship, and the sweetness of sex.
The translation and numbering of the verses are of the text of the Amarushataka of Amaruka, as edited by Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Durgaprasada and Kashinath Pandurang Parab (2nd Revised Edition; Kavyamala Series 18; Bombay: Nirnaya-Sagara Press, 1900). While this edition is primarily of the Western recension of the text with the commentary of Arjunavarmadeva (vss. 1–102), the editors have also included additional stanzas with commentaries from the versions of both Vemabhupala (vss. 103–116) and Rudramadevakumara (vss. 117–130).
Shakespeare, As You Like It