Grow Long, Blessed Night

This book presents new English translations of over 200 erotic poems composed in India's three classical languages: Old Tamil, Maharastri Prakrit, and Sanskrit. The poems have been culled from large anthologies that date from as early as the first century CE to as late as the eighth century. Martha Ann Selby's masterful translations allow the poems to stand on their own in English while maintaining the flavors of the original verses. Grouped according to conversational themes, the poems are annotated whenever a brief explanation is necessary. Grow Long, Blessed Night also provides a thorough scholarly introduction to the origins of the poems, suggestions on how to read them, and information about the languages in which they were composed.