British Asian writing
ForumAsian Fiction & Non-Fiction
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an, um Nachrichten zu schreiben.
Dieses Thema ruht momentan. Die letzte Nachricht liegt mehr als 90 Tage zurück. Du kannst es wieder aufgreifen, indem du eine neue Antwort schreibst.
1LyzzyBee
I think there's an excellent strand of British Asian writing happening at the moment. Of course we've had good old Hanif Kureishi for a while, I love Bali Rai's books even if they're aimed at Young Adults, and recently read Londonstani.
I've just finished reading The Reluctant Mullah which I found interesting for the deep vein of spirituality running through it - fascinating to an 'outsider' (or informed amateur?) such as me. Has anyone else on here read that one? Mine is the only review so far...
I've just finished reading The Reluctant Mullah which I found interesting for the deep vein of spirituality running through it - fascinating to an 'outsider' (or informed amateur?) such as me. Has anyone else on here read that one? Mine is the only review so far...
2wandering_star
What about Meera Syal? Anita and Me is a good start.
3LyzzyBee
Oh yes, she's excellent although I don't think she's written anything new for a while. There are quite a few "Looking for love in a headscarf" books by women authors that I've got on my wishlist too.
4edwinbcn
031. The rivered earth
Finished reading: 18 February 2012
The rivered earth is a volume of poetry which brings together many facets of the rich experience of its author, Vikram Seth. It is the textual companion to four literary festivals, held in four subsequent years, from 2006 to 2009. These four, interdisciplinary festivals were organized as a project, named Confluences, and aimed to bring together the poetry of Vikram Seth (author), the music of Alec Roth (composer), and the virtuoso of Philippe Honoré (violinist). The project brings together various other strands of interconnection between participants, their work, their lives, and their interests.
Aim of the project was for Vikram Seth to write the lyrics, which would be set to music by Alec Roth, and performed by orchestra, soloists and choir, with a prominent role on the violin for Philippe Honoré. This way of working led to the joke among the artists, recorded in this volume as: Seth wrote, and Roth set.
The book consists of four parts: a longish introduction, and four cycles of poetry, each preceded by a short introduction. The long introduction describes the background to Project Confluences, and reproduces two interviews recording their ideas between Seth and Roth, and between Seth and Honoré.
In the first cycle, entitled Songs in Time of War, the libretto consists of 12 poems by the Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu. The translations are from Vikram Seth's volume Three Chinese Poets, originally published in 1992. The title of the libretto for the second cycle is Shared Ground, which consists of six poems inspired by the early Seventeenth century British poet, George Herbert. For the third libretto, The Traveller, Seth selected and translated 25 classical Indian poems, interspersed by seven verses from the Rig Veda Creation Hymn, from the Indian poetic tradition. The fourth cycle aims to bring all threads together in seven poems under the title for the libretto Seven Elements. This cycle is closed with a poetic coda:
The Hermit on the Ice
The hermit sits upon the ice.
The bluish light burns all around,
Immune to flame and sacrifice,
To breath and death and scent and sound.
The scent of pine, the river's roar
Are muted in his breath and pace.
The blue earth with its iron core
Spins on through time, spins on through space.
I felt that the first, third and especially the fourth cycle of poetry seemed lacking in inspiration, possible as the texts separated from the full experience of the performances is somewhat clinical. A redeeming quality of Seth's translations of Du Fu is that they are set to rhyme, which I have not seen in any other translations.
In my opinion, the warmest and best poetry, are the poems of the second cycle. They are inspired by the immediate surroundings of Seth's house in Salisbury, the old rectory which was once the home to George Herbert, which Seth at first shared with his lover at the time, Philippe Honoré.
And
And then I woke. I tried, once more, to sleep,
But could not coax or keep
The thought of you, your laugh, your hands, your eyes,
Blanked by the sun's calm rise.
The dream was done; your voice was gone; the day
That rose now, pink and grey,
Was there to work through, till the dark hours came,
And you, your voice, your name.
For a richer experience of The rivered earth and Confluences, signumrecords will bring out the music performances on CD. So far the following CDs have come out:
Songs in Time of War SIGCD124
& Shared Ground SIGCD270
Note: According to page 6 Shared Ground is brought out as SIGCD127; this is clearly an error, and should be SIGCD270.
Finished reading: 18 February 2012
The rivered earth is a volume of poetry which brings together many facets of the rich experience of its author, Vikram Seth. It is the textual companion to four literary festivals, held in four subsequent years, from 2006 to 2009. These four, interdisciplinary festivals were organized as a project, named Confluences, and aimed to bring together the poetry of Vikram Seth (author), the music of Alec Roth (composer), and the virtuoso of Philippe Honoré (violinist). The project brings together various other strands of interconnection between participants, their work, their lives, and their interests.
Aim of the project was for Vikram Seth to write the lyrics, which would be set to music by Alec Roth, and performed by orchestra, soloists and choir, with a prominent role on the violin for Philippe Honoré. This way of working led to the joke among the artists, recorded in this volume as: Seth wrote, and Roth set.
The book consists of four parts: a longish introduction, and four cycles of poetry, each preceded by a short introduction. The long introduction describes the background to Project Confluences, and reproduces two interviews recording their ideas between Seth and Roth, and between Seth and Honoré.
In the first cycle, entitled Songs in Time of War, the libretto consists of 12 poems by the Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu. The translations are from Vikram Seth's volume Three Chinese Poets, originally published in 1992. The title of the libretto for the second cycle is Shared Ground, which consists of six poems inspired by the early Seventeenth century British poet, George Herbert. For the third libretto, The Traveller, Seth selected and translated 25 classical Indian poems, interspersed by seven verses from the Rig Veda Creation Hymn, from the Indian poetic tradition. The fourth cycle aims to bring all threads together in seven poems under the title for the libretto Seven Elements. This cycle is closed with a poetic coda:
The Hermit on the Ice
The hermit sits upon the ice.
The bluish light burns all around,
Immune to flame and sacrifice,
To breath and death and scent and sound.
The scent of pine, the river's roar
Are muted in his breath and pace.
The blue earth with its iron core
Spins on through time, spins on through space.
I felt that the first, third and especially the fourth cycle of poetry seemed lacking in inspiration, possible as the texts separated from the full experience of the performances is somewhat clinical. A redeeming quality of Seth's translations of Du Fu is that they are set to rhyme, which I have not seen in any other translations.
In my opinion, the warmest and best poetry, are the poems of the second cycle. They are inspired by the immediate surroundings of Seth's house in Salisbury, the old rectory which was once the home to George Herbert, which Seth at first shared with his lover at the time, Philippe Honoré.
And
And then I woke. I tried, once more, to sleep,
But could not coax or keep
The thought of you, your laugh, your hands, your eyes,
Blanked by the sun's calm rise.
The dream was done; your voice was gone; the day
That rose now, pink and grey,
Was there to work through, till the dark hours came,
And you, your voice, your name.
For a richer experience of The rivered earth and Confluences, signumrecords will bring out the music performances on CD. So far the following CDs have come out:
Songs in Time of War SIGCD124
& Shared Ground SIGCD270
Note: According to page 6 Shared Ground is brought out as SIGCD127; this is clearly an error, and should be SIGCD270.
5fictiondreamer
I would definately recommend Nadeem Aslam, whose fourth novel, The Blind Man's Garden, is due to be released on 7 Febraury 2013, in the UK.
