Description
Book SynopsisThis anthology of literary and dramatic works introduces writers from across Asia and the Asian diaspora. The landscapes and time periods it describes are rich and varied: a fishing village on the Padma River in Bangladesh in the early twentieth century, the slums of prewar Tokyo, Indonesia during the anti-leftist purge of the 1960s, and contemporary Tibet. Even more varied are the voices these works bring to life, which serve as testimony to the lives of those adversely impacted by poverty, rapid social change, political suppression, and armed conflict. In the end, the works in this anthology convey an attitude of spiritual and communal survival and even of hope. This anthology presents the complex dynamic between a diversity of Asian lives and the universalized concept of the individual human entitled to clearly specified rights. It also asks us to think about what standards of analysis we should employ when considering a historical period in which universal human rights and civil li
Table of ContentsIntroduction, Theodore W. Goossen and Anindo Hazra, editors 1.A Life in Transit by Noor Zaheer, translated by Arun P. Mukherjee 2.The Hallucinatory World of Aoge by Liao Zixin, translated by Gordon Anderson 3.Sri Sumarah by Umar Kayam, translated by John H. McGlynn 4.Tamil poems by Cheran, V.I.S. Jayapalan and Puthuvai Ratnathurai, translated by Nedra 5.Red Dates by Yuasa Katsue, translated by Jooyeon Rhee 6.Into the Light by Kim Saryang, translated by Theodore W. Goossen 7.Tibetan poems by Ju Kalsang and Poets 1–8, translated by Françoise Robin 8.The Padma River Boatman (excerpt) by Manik Bandopadhyaya, translated by Barbara Painter and Yann Lovelock 9.Voice Upon Voice (abridged) by Lena Simanjuntak and Teater Perempuan Independen, translated by Michael Bodden and Saraswati Sunindyo 10.From the Diaspora: poems by Sheniz Janmohamed and Bushra Rehman
