# M D Rāmanāthan

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2016/03/26/m-d-ramanathan/
- Published: 2016-03-26T04:15:54+00:00
- Author: shuktara

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**Author:** P. Ravikumar
 **Translator: **M. Dakshinamurthy[⌊WP_20151130_13_43_22_Pro 1⌉](https://writersworkshopindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/WP_20151130_13_43_22_Pro-1.jpg)**
Pages:** 96 **Year of Publication:** 2015 **Price:** Rs 200 **ISBN:** 978-93-5045-
097-0 (9789350450970)

_**About the Author**_
 Born in 1952, P. Ravikumar has written two long poems and
many articles. His first poem, _Em Dee Rāmanāthan_, appeared in 2004, and his second,
_Nachiketas_, in 2009. The Hindi translation of_ Nachiketas_ was published in 2013.
Ravikumar is also a music critic and journalist and was on the editorial board of
the _Keralakaumudi_ daily. He is now the Literary Editor of the _Kalakaumudi_ weekly.

_**About the Translator**_
 Born in January 1944, M. Dakshinamurthy obtained his
MA in English from Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam (Kerala). He writes poems and essays
in English, Malayalam and Tamil and has translated from and into these languages.
He won the Ulloor Award of the Thiruvananthapuram Tamil Sangham in 2008. His published
works include _English Kālpanikatā_, a critical work in Malayalam on Romantic literary
theories, and _Divyadarshanam_, a collection of poems in Tamil.

_**About the Book**_

In his foreword to the book, Mahākavi Akkitham writes:

“_Em Dee Rāmanāthan _is an extremely notable recent poem in Malayalam. When I completed
reading it, I felt I could not help writing about it. In twenty chapters, it portrays
the essence of M D Rāmanāthan’s personalty, which cannot be divided simply into 
spiritual and physical. This poem has enabled us to experience fully the reality
called M D Rāmanāthan. Such poetic experiences occur only rarely.

It can be said without any doubt that, through this extraordinary poem, P. Ravikumar
has imprinted his personality on Malayalam poetry. There are some people who think
that poetry is the imagery of a moment… The secret behind the making of _Em Dee 
Rāmanāthan__ _is design, not imagery. This is an age when people think that poetry
does not need a mythology which gives it imagery and meaning. There are people who
think that a poem needs no meaning. My happiness in finding an extraordinarily gifted
poet like Ravikumar in such an age is indeed immeasurable. The importance becomes
clear when we realize that we have had the good fortune to read this inspiring poem
at a time when we fear that English may crush Malayalam out of existence.”