Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham's The Old Days of the Khasis

A huge thank you to everyone who donated to our Unglue.it campaign to support the publication of this book: thanks to you, ALL the digital editions are absolutely free!
Soso Tham was an Indian poet who worked at a time when English was slowly effacing the nuances of ancient Indian culture. Now, however, in Janet Hujon’s valuable translation, English is the very medium that enables Tham’s poetry to reach a wider audience. Hujon draws on parallels from the Romantic imagination and other sympathetic literary traditions of myth to illuminate and contextualise Tham’s work for an English-speaking audience. This translation will contribute to giving Soso Tham the wider recognition he deserves as a poet, and more generally to introduce Western readers to the rich literary traditions of northeast India.
—Dr Vayu Naidu, SOAS, University of London
Soso Tham (1873–1940), the acknowledged poet laureate of the Khasis of northeastern India, was one of the first writers to give written poetic form to the rich oral tradition of his people.
Poet of landscape, myth and memory, Soso Tham paid rich and poignant tribute to his tribe in his masterpiece The Old Days of the Khasis. Janet Hujon’s vibrant new translation presents the English reader with Tham’s long poem, which keeps a rich cultural tradition of the Khasi people alive through its retelling of old narratives and acts as a cultural signpost for their literary identity.
This book is essential reading for anyone with an interest in Indian literature and culture and in the interplay between oral traditions and written literary forms.
This edition includes:
• English translation
• Critical apparatus
• Embedded audio recordings of the original poem
Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham's The Old Days of the Khasis
Translated, with an Introduction, by Janet Hujon | April 2018
100 | 3 colour illustration | 10 embedded audio tracks | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
World Oral Literature Series, vol. 9 | ISSN: 2050-7933 (Print); 2054-362X (Online)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783744688
ISBN Hardback: 9781783744695
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783744701
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783744718
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783744725
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783745050
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0137
Subject codes: BIC: DS (Literature: history and criticism), DCQ (Poetry anthologies), DCF (Poetry by individual poets); BISAC: LCO004000 (LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Asian / General), LIT022000 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology), POE009000 (POETRY / Asian / General); OCLC Number: 1096897095.
World Oral Literature Series, vol. 9 | ISSN: 2050-7933 (Print); 2054-362X (Online)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783744688
ISBN Hardback: 9781783744695
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783744701
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783744718
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783744725
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783745050
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0137
Subject codes: BIC: DS (Literature: history and criticism), DCQ (Poetry anthologies), DCF (Poetry by individual poets); BISAC: LCO004000 (LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Asian / General), LIT022000 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology), POE009000 (POETRY / Asian / General); OCLC Number: 1096897095.
You may also be interested in:
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Preface
Mark Turin
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. A Short Biographical Note
3. Khasi Folktales About Darkness and Light
4. Ki Symboh Ksiar (Grains of Gold)
5. Ka Persyntiew (The Flower Garden)
6. Pyrthei Mariang (The Natural World)
7. U Lyoh (The Cloud)
8. U Rngiew (The Dark One)
9. U Simpyllieng (The Rainbow)
10. Ka Ďing I Mei (Home)
11. Ka Meirilung (Gentle Motherland)
12. Lum Lamare (Lamare Peak)
13. Ka Aďom Ksiar (Season of Gold)
Bibliography
Translation and Notes to the Text © 2018 Janet Hujon. Preface © 2018 Mark Turin.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
Soso Tham. Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham’s The Old Days of the Khasis. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0137
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Cover image: Barapani, Shillong (2009). Photo by Karthik Inbasekar. Flickr, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ikarthik/4438288322, CC BY-SA 2.0.