M.L. Thangapp, who, apart from being a home-grown scholar, is himself a poet and a seasoned translator of poetry, could fully comprehend the meaning/import of a word or a phrase and capture the image of a Sangam poem. The author of Love Stands Alone, M.L. Thangappa eminently fits the bill. In this book, he has provided the English rendering of over 160 select poems. Take, for instance, a poem by Maarpitthiyaar wherein the poet expresses, with a touch of psychological realism, her wonder at the transformation of a young man, who, once capable of captivating the hearts of young women by his charming words, has become an ascetic and is seen drying his hair after bathing in a mountain stream. And Thangappa’s translation runs thus: Look at this ascetic/who wears matted hair/which has acquired the colour of thillai leaves/with frequent wash/in the waterfalls/picking the thick thali leaves/Once he had been a hunter/of sweet young girls/from many a home/catching them in his net of words.
See: The Hindu
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