Foreword
WAITING
From Subhashitavali of Vallabhadeva
My Love
VATSYAYANA From Kamasutra
Four Embraces
MILAIPPERUNKANTAN From Kuruntokai
What He Said
ALLUR NANMULLAI From Kuruntokai
What She Said
ORERURAVANAR From Kuruntokai
What He Said
KALIDASA From Meghadutam
The Loom of Time
ANONYMOUS
A Small Request
SRINATHA
Love Letter
JAGANATHA From Bhamini Vilasa
A Word of Warning
CHANDIDAS
‘I have blackened my golden skin’
ANURADHA MAHAPATRA
God
MAMULANAR From Kuruntokai
What She Said
CHANDIDAS
‘I throw ashes at all laws’
KAPILAR From Ainkurunuru
What Her Friend Said
TEVAKULATTAR From Kuruntokai
What She Said
From Gathasaptasati
‘Even in a reeling world’
‘How can you describe her?’
From Amarusataka
‘All I have to do’
‘She’s in the house’
VARATUNKARAMAPANTIYAN’S WIFE
Space to Space
KABIR
‘Like a sharp arrow’
JAYANTA MAHAPATRA
A Day of Rain
MANORAMA MAHAPATRA
My Whole Life for Him
AMRITA PRITAM
Early Spring
K. SATCHIDANANDAN
Loving aWoman
BALAMANIAMMA
Gift of Love
SHAKUNT MATHUR
A New Way of Waiting
GHALIB
Desires Come by the Thousands
Behind the Curtain
NISSIM EZEKIEL
Poet, Lover, Birdwatcher
MIRAJI
Love Song of the Clerk
SURESH JOSHI
Darkness
SITANSHU YASHASHCHANDRA
Solar
NIRALA
Love Song
A. K. RAMANUJAN
Looking for a Cousin on a Swing
MEENA ALEXANDER
Indian Sandstone
FAHMIDAH RIAZ
Tongue of Stone
PRATIBHA SATPATHY
Dew Drop
SAROOP DHRUV
Beyond the Flapdoor
KEKI N. DARUWALLA From Night River
‘Dream and reality’
MEETING
VATSYAYANA From Kamasutra
‘When men ask about all the ways of embracing’
‘Whatever wound a man inflicts on a woman’
KALIDASA From Sakuntala
‘Craving sweet’
‘Seeing rare beauty’
ANONYMOUS
Kamasutra
From Amarusataka ‘Held her’
KUMARADASA From Janakiharana
‘In their quarrel’
CANDRAKA From Sarngadharapaddhati
‘A long time back’
FAIZ AHMED FAIZ
‘Before you came’
FAHMIDAH RIAZ
Deep Kiss
SUDEEP SEN
Desire
Caress
MIRABAI
‘Here she comes’
‘Hari is a dhobi’
‘On a sudden’
CHANDIDAS
‘I have hardened my mind’
SUJATA BHATT
The Kamasutra Retold
KABIR
‘To say that the love’
‘Lying beside you’
VIDYA
Love in the Countryside
VIKATANITAMBA
Recollection
VALLANA
‘When he had taken off my clothes’
BHAVABHUTI From Uttara Rama Charita
‘Deep in love’
CHAVALI BANGARAMMA
My Brother
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
Black Blossom
One Day
AKHTAR-UL-IMAN
Compromise
ISMAIL
You
BASAVANNA
‘Look here, dear fellow’
ILANKO ATIKAL From The Cilappatikaram
From The Round Dance of the Herdswomen
MAHADEVIYANKKA
‘Like a silkworm weaving’
‘When I didn’t know myself ’
D. VINAYACHANDRAN From Hell Writes a Love Poem
‘When the gigantic bulls with broken horns’
‘For love’
‘It is heaven and hell’
‘Standing naked before the mirror’
From Amarusataka
‘When my face turned toward his’
CEMPULAPPEYANIRAR From Kuruntokai
What He Said
From Amarusataka
‘My girl’
‘Tender-limbed girl’
DOM MORAES
Container
What I Meant
A. S. MUKTHAYAKKA
Little Poems
AYYAPPA PANIKER
The Prison
O. V. USHA
Doubt
KEDARNATH SINGH
On Reading a Love Poem
JYOTSNA MILAN
Woman, 2
AMRITA PRITAM
Talk
DailyWages
UMASHANKAR JOSHI
‘Before I met you’
An Apology
SUNANDA TRIPATHY
Tryst
NABANEETA DEV SEN
Fig Tree
Antara
HIRA BANSODE
Woman
ANONYMOUS
Drowning
MUDDUPALANI
Radha Instructs Ila, Krsna’s New Bride, in the Arts of Love
NANDURI SUBBARAO
Blow Out the Lamp
NABANEETA DEV SEN
Beginning and End
ANURADHA MAHAPATRA
Guiltful
TEJI GROVER
Jealousy 1
BHASWATI ROY CHAUDHURI
Side by Side
GAGAN GILL
She Touches Him
RAJANI PARULEKAR
The Snake Couple
AYYAPPA PANIKER
‘To me your body’
FAHMIDAH RIAZ
‘Come, give me your hand’
A. K. RAMANUJAN
Love Poem for a Wife, 2
JAYANTA MAHAPATRA
The IndianWay
VIKRAM SETH
Unclaimed
KAMALA DAS (KAMALA SURAYYA)
The Old Playhouse
KEKI N. DARUWALLA
To My Daughter Rookzain
SUJATA BHATT
Sherdi
ARUN KOLATKAR
Chaitanya
VIKRAM SETH
From The Golden Gate
JAYADEVA From Gitagovinda
Joyful Krishna
Ecstatic Krishna
PARTING
From Amarusataka
‘To go’
MUTTA
‘So free am I, so gloriously free’
SUMANGALAMATA
‘A woman well set free!’
MIRABAI
‘He’s left me’
JAYADEVA From Gitagovinda
Careless Krishna
MAMALATAN From Kuruntokai
What She Said
KACCIPETTU NANNAKAIYAR From Kuruntokai
What She Said
KAPILAR From Kuruntokai
What She Said
From Gathasaptasati
‘Separation’s fire’
‘Aunt’
From Gahakoso ‘Scornfully’
KAPILAR From Ainkurunuru
What Her Friend Said
CANDRAKA From Sarngadharapaddhati
‘At day’s end’
SRIVARA From Subhashitavali of Vallabhadeva
‘I know’
GHALIB
Near the Zam ZamWell
Some Exaggerations
FAIZ AHMED FAIZ
Any Lover to Any Beloved
From Gathasaptasati
‘They whisper the cruel one’
‘Unable to count’
‘Distance destroys love’
‘His form’
RABINDRANATH TAGORE
‘He never came to me’
Comings and Goings
From I Won’t Let You Go
DILIP CHITRE
From Travelling in a Cage
CHINU MODI
Elegy
KAIFI AZMI
Humiliation
AYYAPPA PANIKER
How Well Have I Forgotten!
AMRITA PRITAM
The Sigh That Breathes Fire
FAHMIDAH RIAZ
Stoning
AGHA SHAHDID ALI
A Rehearsal of Loss
NIRENDRANATH CHAKRAVARTY
The Bloodstained Trophies
AMRITA PRITAM
The Tale of Fire
SUGATHA KUMARI
Night Rain
P. BHASKARAN
Sometimes, Remember Me
KABITA SINHA
The Last Door’s Name is Sorrow
JAYANATA MAHAPATRA
Poem for Angela Elston
AGHA SHAHID ALI
From A Nostalgist’s Map of America
VIKRAM SETH From The Golden Gate
NISSIM EZEKIEL
Description
AGHA SHAHID ALI
Film Bhajan Found on a 78 RPM
MEENA ALEXANDER
Closing the Kamasutra
KISHWAR NAHEED
A Story Among Many
History Does Not Repeat Itself
Agreement
FAIZ AHMED FAIZ
‘Do not ask of me, my love’
Acknowledgments
