Amaru

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Amaru or Amaruka , (approx. 6th - 8th centuries ) is an Indian poet and, along with Kalidasa and Bhartrihari, is the main representative of Indian Sanskrit poetry and a great master of erotic poetry.

Life

Hardly any reliable facts exist about his life, the majority are legendary traditions. He was probably a Kashmiri king, but legends say that the poems actually came from the philosopher Sankara, who in the text only pretends to be Amaru to sing about his wife, the queen, as his lover. Based on the lyrics, however, it can be definitely said that Amaru must have belonged to the highest social class of his time.

plant

Indian illustration for verse 76 of the Amarusataka from the early 17th century

In his only work, the Amarusataka (German: The Hundred Strophes of Amarus ), the already very old form of the poetic miniature, known as muktaka or gatha , in which he isolated images of mostly heterosexual and homosexual erotic characters makes it intensely tangible for the reader. In one legend, Amaru is referred to as the one hundred and first reincarnation of a soul who had previously been incarnated one hundred times in women's bodies.

Despite the “small form” that Amaru makes use of and the, according to today's Western understanding, simple topic, he uses considerable creative energy on the epigrams, uses “hyperbolas, metaphors, puns, etc., so stylistic figures, but also the Imponderables of language that can create feelings, moods, and ultimately a supra-personal, divine pleasure in the listener. Even the refined poem, which has to meet certain audience expectations, is always more than a complicated conglomerate of stylistic-rhetorical formulas. The really erotic aspect of Indian love poetry arises between the common images and phrases and an inspiration that, synaesthetically enhanced, makes the atmosphere of desire, the excitement and satisfaction of sensual and spiritual needs, immediately perceptible. "

Western reception

The first translation of the Amarusataka into a Western language came from one of the founders of Indology, the French Antoine-Léonard de Chézy . This translation was published in Paris in 1831, albeit under a pseudonym due to the erotic content. In the same year parts of the work also followed in Wendt's Musenalmanach as “Sanskritische Liebesliedchen Amarusatakam”, translated by Friedrich Rückert . The complete version of the translation of the Amarusataka by Rückert did not appear until 1925 in Hanover in the Orient-Buchhandlung Heinz Lafaire, edited by Johannes Nobel based on the manuscript of the Prussian State Library (not reprinted since). As early as 1913, the German writer Hans Bethge submitted texts to Amarus in his famous series of adaptations of oriental poetry. In 1937/38 the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky set Amaru's poem The Scorned to music . The modern reference text is the bilingual Motilal Banarsidass edition from 1984 with an English translation by Martha Ann Selby.

example

Poem No. 58 in the original

58. The morning wind after a night of pleasure.


Moist with beautiful sweat-beaded moons of the face, droplet robbery, swaying fullness of curls shaking, shaking the loin cover gently,
early in spring with blooming water lilies,
fanning dust with blooming water lilies, exhausting at night, the morning wind blows.

(Translated by: F. Rückert)

literature

  • Hans Bethge: The Indian harp. Adaptations of Indian poetry. 4th edition revised and expanded by the author. Kelkheim 2002, ISBN 3-9806799-8-5 .
  • The Hundred Stanzas of Amaru. Metrically translated from Sanskrit by Friedrich Rückert. Hanover 1925.
  • Érotique d'Amarou anthology. Translation by AL Apudy ( di Antoine-Leonard de Chézy ). Paris 1831.
  • Amarusatakam / Amarukaviviracitam. Arjunavarmadevapraītayā Rasikasaṃjīvinīsamākhyayā vyākhyayā parisistaicopetam. punarmudrana. Motilal Banarsidass, Dilli 1983. In Devanāgarī script, Sanskrit. Reprint of the Bombay 1889 edition.
  • Chintaman Ramchandra Devadhar (Ed.): Amarusatakam: A centum of ancient love lyrics of Amaruka. English translation and appendices. Vemabhūpālaviracitayā Śṛṇgāradīpikākhyayā vyākhyayā samalamkṛtam. Poona 1959. Reprint: Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1984.
  • Helmuth von Glasenapp : The literatures of India. From its beginnings to the present (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 318). Kröner, Stuttgart 1961, DNB 363784993 .
  • Max Lorenzen, in: Marburg Forum. Contributions to the intellectual situation of the present. Volume 4/2003, issue 4.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Max-Otto Lorenzen , in: Marburger Forum. Contributions to the intellectual situation of the present. Volume 4/2003, issue 4

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Amaru
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Amaruka
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian poet
DATE OF BIRTH between 6th century and 8th century
PLACE OF BIRTH India
DATE OF DEATH between 6th century and 8th century
Place of death India