by Anjali Tata
Translate through movement one or two stanzas from the following poem and find a symbolic meaning as well as recurring movement motif (can be a gesture or one movement) for "house."
Be aware of space and boundaries in space that might differentiate this symbolic "home" from elsewhere.
A Woman to Her Lover : Annamaya: maruninagari danda
Don’t you know my house,
Garland in the palace of the Love God,
Where flowers cast their fragrance everywhere?
Don’t you know the house hidden by tamarind trees,
In that narrow space marked by two golden hills?
That’s where you lose your senses,
Where the love god hunts without fear.
Don’t you know my house?
Don’t you know the house?
The love gods marketplace of passions,
The dusk where the dark clears, and yet it is not clear?
Don’t you know the house where you live in your own heart?
That’s where all affections hold court.
Don’t you know my house?
Don’t you know the house where the garden of daturas make you go mad with love?
You should know: you’re the lord of Venkata hill
Its gates are signed by the love god
And you should know that’s where
You heap all your wealth
---Annamaya 262, Telugu courtesan song from When God is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others, edited and translated by A. K. Ramanujan, Velcheru Narayana Rao, and David Shulman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
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