Over 3,000 years of Indian poetry from 28 languages translated and published in French
Apr 03, 2022
Paris [France], April 3 : The French edition of '100 Great Indian Poems', selected and edited by Indian poet and diplomat Abhay Kumar, has been translated and published into French by L'Harmattan, Paris.
Titled 'Cent grands poemes indiens' in French, the book includes poems from 28 Indian languages spanning over 3,000 years of Indian poetry.
The work has earlier been translated and published into Arabic by Sharjah Institute for Heritage, into Italian by Edizioni Efesto, Rome, into Spanish by the National Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon (UNAL), Monterrey, Mexico, into Portuguese by the University of Sao Paulo and into Malagasy by Tsipika editions.
On the publication of the book, editor Abhay Kumar said, "The French edition of 100 Great Indian Poems will provide a glimpse of the rich heritage of Indian poetry spread over three millennia to the French-speaking world and act as a literary bridge between India and Francophone countries."
The book has been translated into French by Mose Njo, Tsiky Koloinjanahary Rabe, Haja Lalao Razanamanana, Placide Alex Tsarahevitra JL Razafy, Folly K., Fanja Rakotondrainibe, Thina A. and Chaitali Pandya.
The '100 Great Indian poems' has also been translated into Irish, Nepali, Russian, and Greek and the editions are likely to be published soon.
Abhay Kumar, who goes by his pen name Abhay K. is the author of 10 poetry collections including Monsoon (Sahitya Akademi, 2022), The Magic of Madagascar (L'Harmattan Paris, 2021), The Alphabets of Latin America (Bloomsbury India, 2020), and the editor of The Book of Bihari Literature (Harper Collins, 2022), The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems, CAPITALS, New Brazilian Poems and The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems.
His poems have appeared in over 100 literary magazines including Poetry Salzburg Review, and Asia Literary Review among others. His 'Earth Anthem' has been translated into over 150 languages. He received the SAARC Literary Award in 2013 and was invited to record his poems at the Library of Congress, Washington DC in 2018. He has recently translated Kalidasa's Meghaduta (Bloomsbury India, 2021) and Ritusamhara (Bloomsbury India, 2021) from Sanskrit, which has received the Kalinga Literary Festival Poetry Book of the Year 2021-22 Award.
