aarudra "tvamEvAham" pIThikalO anukunTaanu, quotes a western
critic as saying -- "good petry can easily be defined as one
which gives pleasure even before it is completely understood".
how true!! "completely" is the critical word here. most of us
do not readily understand all the poems of yore. the first reading
usually provides just the gist of what the poet is trying to say!
still, it does give pleasure and provides the thirst to comprehend the
full meaning of the poem. help of the knowledged/research with the
help of a dictionary is almost always necessary. "half-knowledge" can
never give the pleasure of completely understanding a beautiful poem.
let me give an example.
before srinivas posted "ala vaikunTha purambulO nagarilO...", my
reading of the poem gave me a half-baked understanding, which was
enough to carry me in the "nirmala mandAkinI" pravAham of pOtana's
gajEndra mOksham. however, i was spurred to look up for the
meanings of different words only after srinivas posted on telusa.
and how valuable it has been! aa rOju karirAju gaggOlu peDuthunna vELa,
SrImannArAyaNuDu sukhAsInuDai vinOdistunnADani ceppaDaNikI,
sarassu oDDuna, caluva rAyi pai pErcina kaluva pUla Sayyapai
lakshmIdEvi tO vinOdistunnADani ceppaDAniki unna tEDAnE -- nA
half-understandingkI, full comprehension kI madhya undi.
if telusa helps srinivas and me, get together for deriving the
pleasure involved in fully comprehending a beautiful poem,
what's wrong with it?
: Then comes the discussion. Most of the discussion is not about the soul
: of the poem (if it has one). It is about the Yati and prasa, filler words,
: double meanings of some words, and the whole nine yards. But if you challenge
: the same folks about the definition of poetry, the first thing they say
: is that poetry is about the spilling of poet'semotions! I have yet to see
: any emotion in this discussion. This discussion is more like appreciation of
: a patient who is terminally ill and we are talking about how great he was
: when was in his prime. No wonder the chandobadha poetry smells like a
: morgue to me.
similar tastes unna iddaru mitrulu kalusukunnappuDu,
highly cultured discussions mAtramE kAdu,
piccApATi kUDA mAmUlE. u can compare the discussion on filler words
and double meanings to be an example of the latter on telusa.
regards
prasad
-- ********************************************************************* Prasad Chodavarapu * WWW Homepage: * 305 N.Lincoln Av., #S105 * * Urbana IL 61801 * http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~chodavar* ********************************************************************* ph:(217)-344-0473(R) * "manasanE oka sampada prati * (217)-244-6909(O) * manishilOnU unDanI, mamatalE * ********************************** prati manasulO koluvunDanI" * e-mail:chodavar@students.uiuc.edu* --rAjasrI * *********************************************************************