Beschreibung
This book, based on translations, is literary and frankly experimental; it is about natural experiences told in natural language. Often translations from centuries ago seem stilted, dry and archaic, literally correct and academically adequate, but lacking such touchstones of basic humanitys life as inner feelings and visceral intuitive sensations. I am exercising a hope of offering a fresh telling, and a chance to provide some imaginative reflections on this topic I have chosen. The theme is sweatand other natural human responses. Ive been struck by how the experience of sweat meant something different centuries ago in India, in comparison with what it means to many people today. As reflected in Sanskrit literature, sweat had associations with desirable feelingsthrills, soulful exertions, arousal, passionate intensity. Its distinctive, and I seek to know what it might tell us about life, both to Hindus and non-Hindus. It offers a chance to contemplatively play around with beauty, too. Its an aesthetic exploration of an alluring human mood, of loving joy.
Autorenporträt
William J. Jackson was born in Rock Island, Illinois. He has lived in Chicago, New York, Vermont, Indiana and Massachusetts, and spent three and a half years in India. He studied Indian traditions and languages at Harvard University, where he earned his PhD. He taught Comparative Religion at Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis.
