A book of luminous things: an international anthology of poetry
Czeslaw Milosz
Milosz, Czeslaw;
A book of luminous things: an international anthology of poetry
Harcourt 1996-09-30 (hardcover)
ISBN 9780151001699 / 0151001693
topics: | poetry | anthology | nobel-1980 | anthology
i found this anthology very high on my "where-the-page-falls-open" test. almost all the poems work for me. and they are all new - from a surprisingly diverse set of cultures, mostly eastern europe and china.
The poems are grouped into eleven themes - - nature (birds, flowers, insects, weather, etc.) - the moment - people among people (portraits, tense moments) - woman's skin (love, physicality) - situations - places - travel - nonattachment (a detached view, not quite mystic) and shorter sections on "secret of a thing", "history", "epiphany", Czeslaw's favourite poets, at least those selected the most, appear to be:
Most popular poets in Luminous things
#poems poet
12 Anna Swir [Polish poet WW2 nurse, 1909-1984) (wiki) 11 Walt Whitman 11 Po Chü-I [Chinese Tang poet Bai Juyi; Henan / Xian, 772-846] (wiki, poems) 11 Tu Fu [Chinese Tang poet; Henan / Xian, 712-770] (wiki) 10 Wang Wei [Chinese Tang poet, Shanxi / Xian, 699-759] (wiki) 7 Jean Follain [French author, poet, and lawyer, 1903-1971] (wiki) 5 Wislawa Szymborska [Polish poet, 1923- ] (wiki) 5 Steve Kowit [US poet, NYC/Calif. 1938- ] (bio,poems) 5 Denise Levertov 5 Blaise Cendrars [Swiss-French novelist / poet, 1900-1961] (wiki, critique) 4 Rolf Jacobsen [Norwegian poet, 1907-1994] (wiki) 4 Robinson Jeffers [US poet 1887-1962] (wiki) 4 Kenneth Rexroth 3 Aleksander Wat [Polish poet, 1900-1967] (wiki)
Thus the coverage is either European (20th century), or ancient Chinese (Tang dynasty). There are a couple of middle-eastern poets, none from south asia.
Error in attributing a poet
There is an error of attribution in the book. The poem "When he pressed his lips" is by an ancient Sanskrit woman poet, Vikatanitamba translated by Steve Kowit. Here, the poem appears under Kowit's name, and that it is a translation is quite lost. The text does bear the notation "after Vikatanitamba" at the bottom, but to me it seems like a vestigial eurocentric bias; how many poets would translate dante and give only a note like this? That the poem is a translation and not an inspired re-creation is clear if we compare nother translations of this work, by Octavio Paz and by Daniel Ingalls (both given below). Thus, Vikatanitamba should have been acknowledged in the list of poets, and Steve Kowit also needs to make this explicit. Hopefully this may be fixed in a later edition... --- Except for this small south asian complaint, the anthology is superb - a complete delight! Part of what makes this anthology work is also the brief introductions to each piece, where Milosz sets the tone and links it up with the otherwise disparate neighbours.
Excerpts
Adam Zagajewski (Poland, 1945-): Moths p.19
Moths watched us through the window. Seated at the table, we were skewered by their lambent gazes, harder than their shattering wings. You'll always be outside, past the pane. And we'll be here within, more and more in. Moths watched us through the window, in August. poems: poetryfoundation poets.org buffalo.edu wikipedia : Adam Zagajewski
Zbigniew Machej : Orchards in July p.29
[tr. Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass] Waters from cold springs and glittering minerals tirelessly wander. Patient, unceasing, they overcome granite, layers of hungry gravel, iridescent precincts of clay. If they abandon themselves to the black roots it's only to go up, as high as possible through wells hidden under the bark of fruit trees. Through the green touched with gray, of leaves, fallen petals of white flowers with rosy edges, apples heavy with sweet redness and their bitterish seeds. O, waters from cold springs and glittering minerals. You are awaited by a cirrus with a fluid sunny outline and by an abyss of blue which has been rinsed in the just wind.
Anna Swir (1909-1984)
Polish poet Anna Swirszczynska, who joined the Polish Resistance during WW2. Towards the end of the war, The resistance launched the Warsaw Uprising, a sharp push to evict the germans before the red army, thus underscoring polish sovereignty. In the event, Soviet troops actually did not enter warsaw for many months and the resistance surrendered in 63 days after nearly 200,000 polish deaths (about 3000 per day). More than 80% of Warsaw was destroyed, mostly by fire. Anna served as a nurse during this period, and the grueling scenes of this period form the basis for some of her poetry. Anna Swir has the most poems in this book. Czeslaw obviously feels she is underappreciated in English; all the poems have been translated by Czeslaw and Nathan.
The Sea And The Man (Anna Swir) p.47
(tr. Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan) You will not tame this sea either by humility or rapture. But you can laugh in its face. Laughter was invented by those who live briefly as a burst of laughter. The eternal sea will never learn to laugh.
Anna Swir : I Wash the Shirt 204
For the last time I wash the shirt of my father who died. The shirt smells of sweat. I remember that sweat from my childhood, so many years I washed his shirts and underwear, I dried them at an iron stove in the workshop, he would put them on unironed. From among all bodies in the world, animal, human, only one exuded that sweat. I breathe it in for the last time. Washing this shirt I destroy it forever. Now only paintings survive him which smell of oils.
The Greatest Love : Anna Swir 219
(tr. Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan) She is sixty. She lives the greatest love of her life. She walks arm-in-arm with her dear one, her hair streams in the wind. Her dear one says: "You have hair like pearls." Her children say: "Old fool."
Louis Simpson (1923-) : After Midnight p. 117
The dark streets are deserted, With only a drugstore glowing Softly, like a sleeping body; With one white, naked bulb In the back, that shines On suicides and abortions. Who lives in these dark houses? I am suddenly aware I might live here myself. The garage man returns And puts the change in my hand, Counting the singles carefully.
I Talk to My Body : Anna Swir 233
My body, you are an animal whose appropriate behovior is concentration and discipline. An effort of an athlete, of a saint, and of a yogi. Well trained, you may become for me a gate through which I will leave myself and a gate through which I will enter myself. A plumb line to the center of the earth and a cosmic ship to Jupiter. My body, you are an animal from whom ambition is right. Splendid possibilities are open to us.
I'm Afraid of Fire (Anna Swir) 296
Why am I so afraid running along this street that's on fire. After all there's no one here only the fire roaring up to the sky and that rumble wasn't a bomb but just three floors collapsing. Set free, the naked flames dance, wave their arms through the gaps of the windows, it's a sin to peep at naked flames a sin to eavesdrop on free fire's speech. I am fleeing from that speech, which resounded here on earth before the speech of man.
Po Chu-I (772-846)
Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi (in modern Pinyin; written Po Chu-I in the earlier Giles system), has an accessible style and appears from early anthologies (unlike Du Fu). Born in Henan province, he passed his competitive exams (jinshi) at age 18 and joined the imperial service. He was prefect of Hangzhou and then Suzhou. See poems at blackcatpoems.
Po Chu-I: Madly singing in the mountains 120
[tr. Arthur Waley]
There is no one among men that has not a special failing:
And my failing consists in writing verses.
I have broken away from the thousand ties of life;
But this infirmity still remains behind.
Each time that I look at a fine landscape,
Each time that I meet a loved friend,
I raise my voice and recite a stanza of poetry
And marvel as though a God had crossed my path.
Ever since the day I was banished to Hsun-yang
Half my time I have lived among the hills.
And often, when I have finished a new poem,
Alone I climb the road to the Eastern Rock
I lean my body on the banks of white Stone;
I pull down with my hands a green cassia branch.
My mad singing startles the valleys and hills;
The apes and birds all come to peep.
Fearing to become a laughing-stock to the world,
I choose a place that is unfrequented by men.
Po Chu-i : Sleeping on horseback 172
[tr. Arthur Waley]
We had ridden long and were still far from the inn;
My eyes grew dim; for a moment I fell asleep.
Under my right arm the whip still dangled;
In my left hand the reins for an instant slackened.
Suddenly I woke and turned to question my groom.
"We have gone a hundred paces since you fell asleep."
Body and spirit for a while had changed place;
Swift and slow had turned to their contraries.
For these few steps that my horse had carried me
Had taken in my dream countless aeons of time!
True indeed is that saying of Wise Men
"A hundred years are but a moment of sleep."
Carlos Drummond de Andrade: In the Middle of the Road 8
[from Portuguese, tr. Elizabeth Bishop] In the middle of the road there was a stone there was a stone in the middle of the road there was a stone in the middle of the road there was a stone. Never should I forget this event in the life of my fatigued retinas. Never should I forget that in the middle of the road there was a stone there was a stone in the middle of the road in the middle of the road there was a stone.
Wang Wei (701-761): Song about Xi Shi 179
[tr. Tony and Willis Barnstone and Xu Haisin] Since beauty casts a spell on everyone, How could Xi Shi stay poor so long? In the morning she was washing clothes in the Yue river, In the evening she was a concubine in the palace of Wu. When she was poor, was she out of the ordinary? Now rich, she is rare. Her attendants apply her powders and rouge, others dress her in silks. The king favours her and it fans her arrogance. She can do no wrong. Of her old friends who washed silks with her, none share her carriage. In her fillage her best friend is ugly. It's hopeless to imitate Lady Xi Shi's cunning frowns. (several Wang Wei poems, including this one in a different translation, can be found at http://www.chinapage.com/poem/300poem/t300a.html)
Legend of Xi Shi
Xi Shi (c. 506BC-?) was one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. While laundering her garments in the river, the fish would be so dazzled that they forgot how to swim and gradually sunk to the bottom, while condors were so charmed that many stopped flying and plummeted to death. The idiom 沉魚落雁, (pinyin; chén yú luò yàn) "To cause fish to sink and condors to drop" is a compliment used for beautiful women. ) King Gou Jian of Yue, after being defeated by Wu, was advised by his minister Fan Li to gift Xi Shi and Zheng Dan to the Wu king Fu Chai. With these extraordinary beauties, Fu Chai forgot all about his state affairs and had his great general Wu Zixu killed. Eventually, he was defeated by Gou Jian in 473 BC. In legends, after the fall of Wu, Fan Li retired from his minister post and lived with Xi Shi on a fishing boat, roaming like fairies in the misty wilderness of Tai Ho Lake, and no one has seen them ever since. The Xi Shi Temple, at the foot of the Zhu Lou Hill in the southern part of Suzhou, on the banks of the Huansha River, commemorates her. The West Lake in Hangzhou, called Xizi Lake, (Xizi means Lady Xi), is said to be an incarnation of her.
William Carlos Williams : The Red Wheelbarrow 66
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
Steve Kowit : In the Morning 215
In the morning, holding her mirror, the young woman touches her tender lip with her finger & then with the tip of her tongue licks it & smiles & admires her eyes.
Steve Kowit : Notice 199
This evening, the sturdy Levi's I wore every day for over a year & which seemed to the end in perfect condition, suddenly tore. How or why I don't know, but there it was: a big rip at the crotch. A month ago my friend Nick walked off a racquetball court, showered, got into this street clothes, & halfway home collapsed & died. Take heed, you who read this, & drop to your knees now & again like the poet Christopher Smart, & kiss the earth & be joyful, & make much of your time, & be kindly to everyone, even to those who do not deserve it. For although you may not believe it will happen, you too will one day be gone, I, whose Levi's ripped at the crotch for no reason, assure you that such is the case. Pass it on.
Vikatanitamba (8th c. AD, Sanskrit) : When He Pressed His Lips 224
(tr. Steve Kowit) When he pressed his lips to my mouth the knot fell open of itself. When he pressed them to my throat the dress slipped to my feet. So much I know -- but when his lips touched my breast everything, I swear, down to his very name, became so much confused that I am still, dear friends, unable to recount (as much as I would care to) what delights were next bestowed upon me & by whom translation by Octavio Paz: Recollection At the side of the bed the knot came undone by itself, and barely held by the sash the robe slipped to my waist. My friend, it’s all I know: I was in his arms and I can’t remember who was who or what we did or how (Meena Alexander, Indian love poems, 2005, p.97) see Note: attribution error above - this poem needs to be attributed to sanskrit woman poet Vikatanitamba (c. 8th c.), and this text as a translation by Steve Kowit. This poem appears as item 572 in Sanskrit Court poetry: Vidyakara's "Subhasitaratnakosa"; an anthology from the 13th c. Daniel Ingalls' has edited and translated this anthology - his translation goes: 572. As he came to bed the knot fell open of itself, the dress held only somehow to my hips by the strands of the loosened girdle. So much I know, my dear; but when within his arms, I can't remember who he was or who I was, or what we did or how. vikaTanitamba [amaru collection] p.203 Of Vikatanitamba's life, we know little beside her name, and about half a dozen poems that appear in different anthologies such as subhAsitaratnakoSha (fragrant jewel chest) the name is literally ugly buttocks, a self-deprecating style of naming that was fashionable for other women poets of the times. Her poetry is among those cited in analyses of literary style such as Anandavardhana (9th c.).
Emperor Ch'ien-wen of Liang : Getting up in Winter 226
Winter morning. Pale sunlight strikes the ceiling. She gets out of bed reluctantly. Her nightgown has a bamboo sash. SHe wipes the dew off her mirror. At this hour there is no one to see her. Why is she making up so early?
Denise Levertov : A woman meets an old lover 228
He with whom I ran hand in hand kicking the leathery leaves down Oak Hill Path thirty years ago appeared before me with anxious face, pale, almost unrecognized, hesitant, lame. He whom I cannot remember hearing laugh out loud but see in mind’s eye smiling, self-approving, wept on my shoulder. He who seemed always to take and not give, who took me so long to forget, remembered everything I had so long forgotten.
David Wagoner : Loons Mating 15
Their necks and their dark heads lifted into a dawn Blurred smooth by mist, the loons Beside each other are swimming slowly In charmed circles, their bodies stretched under water Through ripples quivering and sweeping apart The gray sky now held close by the lake’s mercurial threshold Whose face and underface they share In wheeling and diving tandem, rising together To swell their breasts like swans, to go breasting forward With beaks turned down and in, near shore, Out of sight behind a windbreak of birch and alder, And now the haunted uprisen wailing call. And again, and now the beautiful sane laughter.
Lawrence Raab : The Sudden Appearance of a Monster at a Window 254
header note by milosz:
The frailty of so-called civilized life, our awareness that it lasts
merely by a miracle, because at any moment it could disintegrate and
reveal unmitigated horror, as has happened more than once in our century
- all this could contribute to the writing of this poem. Its author lives
in an idyllic New England, and has a window with a view of an orchard.
Yes, his face really is so terrible
you cannot turn away. And only
that thin sheet of glass between you,
clouding with his breath.
Behind him: the dark scribbles of trees
in the orchard, where you walked alone
just an hour ago, after the storm had passed,
watching water drip from the gnarled branches,
stepping carefully over the sodden fruit.
At any moment he could put his fist
right through that window. And on your side:
you could grab hold of this
letter opener, or even now try
very slowly to slide the revolver
out of the drawer of the desk in front of you.
But none of this will happen. And not because
you feel sorry for him, or detect
in his scarred face some helplessness
that shows in your own as compassion.
You will never know what he wanted,
what he might have done, since
this thing, of its own accord, turns away.
And because yours is a life in which
such a monster cannot figure for long,
you compose yourself, and return
to your letter about the storm, how it bent
the apple trees so low they dragged
on the ground, ruining the harvest.
William Carlos Williams: To a Poor Old Woman 191
munching a plum on the street a paper bag of them in her hand They taste good to her They taste good to her. They taste good to her You can see it by the way she gives herself to the one half sucked out in her hand Comforted a solace of ripe plums seeming to fill the air They taste good to her
Jelaluddin Rumi : Little by Little, Wean Yourself 271
Little by little, wean yourself. This is the gist of what I have to say. From an embryo, whose nourishment comes in the blood, move to an infant drinking milk, to a child on solid food, to a searcher after wisdom, to a hunter of more invisible game. Think how it is to have a conversation with an embryo. You might say, "The world outside is vast and intricate. There are wheatfields and mountain passes, and orchards in bloom. At night there are millions of galaxies, and in sunlight the beauty of friends dancing at a wedding." You ask the embryo why he, or she, stays cooped up in the dark with eyes closed. Listen to the answer. There is no "other world." I only know what I've experienced. You must be hallucinating. Mathnawi III 49-6
Jelaluddin Rumi : Out Beyond Ideas 276
[tr. Coleman Brooks and John Moyne] Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense
Miron Bialoszewski : A Ballad of Going Down to the Store 285
tr. from the Polish by Czeslaw Milosz from Milosz's headnote: Polish (Jew) poet, Miron Bialoszewski (1922-1983) survived and the complete destruction of Warsaw during WW2. A humourous poet, he describes the most ordinary human actions with an attention usually deserved by much greater events. First I went down to the store by means of the stairs, just imagine it, by means of the stairs. Then people known to people unknown passed by and I passed them by. Regret that you did not see how people walk, regret! I entered a complete store: lamps of glass were glowing. I saw somebody--he sat down-- and what did I hear? What did I hear? rustling of bags and human talk. And indeed, indeed, I returned.
Naomi Lazard : Ordinance on Arrival p.304
Welcome to you
who have managed to get here.
It's been a terrible trip;
you should be happy you have survived it.
Statistics prove that not many do.
You would like a bath, a hot meal,
a good night's sleep. Some of you
need medical attention.
None of this is available.
These things have always been
in short supply; now
they are impossible to obtain.
This is not
a temporary situation;
it is permanent.
Our condolences on your disappointment.
It is not our responsibility
everything you have heard about this place
is false. It is not our fault
you have been deceived,
ruined your health getting here.
For reasons beyond our control
there is no vehicle out.
Contents (by author)
the thematic organization used by Czeslaw makes it hard to trace the
individual poets. Here is an author-wise breakup of the poems.
Adam Zagajewski : Moths 19
Auto Mirror 128
Al Zolynas : Love in the Classroom 193
Zen of Housework 156
Aleksander Wat : A Joke 243
Facing Bonnard 70
From 'Songs of a Wanderer' 164
From Persian Parables 297
Aloysius Bertrand : The Mason 142
Anna Kamienska : A Prayer That Will Be Answered 290
Anna Swir : I Talk to My Body 233
I Starve My Belly for a Sublime Purpose 235
I'm afraid of fire 296
She Does Not Remember 220
Troubles with the Soul at Morning Calisthenics 234
The Greatest Love 219
The Sea and the Man 47
Antonio Machado : Rainbow at Night 93
Summer Night 132
Blaise Cendrars : Fish Cove 80
Aleutian Islands 79
Frisco-City 83
Harvest 81
South 82
Bronislaw Maj : A Leaf 258
An August Afternoon 158
Seen Fleetingly, from a Train 97
Carlos Drummond de Andrade : In the Middle of the Road 8
Ch'ang Yu : A Ringing Bell 279
Ch'in Juan : Along the Grand Canal 100
Chang Chi : Coming at Night to a Fisherman's Hut 85
Chang Yan-hao : Recalling the Past at T'ung Pass 91
Charles Simic : Empire of Dreams 171
Chu Shu Chen : Morning 216
Chuang Tzu : Man Is Born in Tao 274
The Need to Win 275
Chuang Tzu : Man Is Born in Tao 274
The Need to Win 275
Constantine Cavafy : Supplication 184
Waiting for the Barbarians 305
D.H. Lawrence : Butterfly 31
Maximus 5
Mystic 36
David Kirby : To a French Structuralist 131
David Wagoner : Loons Mating 15
The Author of American Ornithology Sketches a Bird, Now Extinct 13
Denise Levertov : Living 24
A Woman Meets an Old Lover 228
Eye Mask 266
Living 24
Witness 72
Eamon Grennan : Woman at Lit Window 169
Edward Field : A Journey 98
Elizabeth Bishop : Brazil, January 1, 1502 121
Emily Dickinson : A Narrow Fellow in the Grass 45
Emperor Ch'ien-wen of Liang : Getting up in Winter 226
Eskimo (anonymous) : Magic Words 268
Francis Ponge : The Frog 69
Franz Wright : Depiction of Childhood 250
Galway Kinnell : Daybreak 35
Gary Snyder : Dragonfly 32
Late October Camping in the Sawtooths 151
Gunnar Ekëlof : Greece 125
Issa : Haiku 6
From the bough
floating down river
insect song
Kikaku : Haiku 6
Above the boat
bellies
of wild geese
tr. Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto (both haikus)
Jaan Kaplinski : We Started Home, my Son and I 103
My Wife and Children 167
James Applewhite : Prayer for My Son 119
James Tate : Teaching the Ape to Write 251
Jane Hirshfield : A Story 42
Jean Follain : A Mirror 225
A Taxidermist 16
Black Meat 161
Buying 160
Face the Animal 43
Music of Spheres 7
School and Nature 162
Jelaluddin Rumi : Little by Little, Wean Yourself 271
Out Beyond Ideas 276
Joanne Kyger : And with March a Decade in Bolinas 242
Destruction 38
John Haines : On the Mountain 102
Jorge Guillén : Flight 44
Joseph Brodsky : In the Lake District 115
Odysseus to Telemachus 116
Judah Al-Harizi : The Lightning 58
Judah Al-Harizi : The Lute 59
Judah Al-Harizi : The Sun 58
Julia Hartwig : Above Us 298
Keith Wilson : Dusk in My Backyard 152
Kenneth Rexroth : From 'The City of the Moon' 287
Kenneth Rexroth : Signature of All Things 144
Kenneth Rexroth : The Heart of Herakles 146
Kikaku : Haiku 6
Lawrence Raab : The Sudden Appearance of a Monster at a Window 254
Leonard Nathan : Bladder Song 197
Leonard Nathan : Toast 196
Leopold Staff : Foundations 295
Li Ch'ing-chao : Hopelessness 218
Li Po : Ancient Air 84
Li Po : Ancient Air 88
Li Po : The Birds Have Vanished 277
Li-Young Lee : Irises 17
Linda Gregg : A Dark Thing Inside the Day 163
Linda Gregg : Adult 221
Linda Gregg : Night Music 127
Liu Tsung-Yüan : Old Fisherman 135
Louis Simpson : After Midnight 117
Mary Oliver : The Kingfisher 20
Wild Geese 40
May Swenson : Question 229
Mei Yao Ch'en : A Dream at Nght 182
Miron Bialoszewski : A Ballad of Going Down to the Store 285
Moushegh Ishkhan : The Armenian Language is the Home of the Armenian 303
Muso Soseki : Magnificent Peak 71
Muso Soseki : Old Man at Leisure 286
Nachman of Bratzlav : From 'The Torah of the Void' 269
Naomi Lazard : Ordinance on Arrival 304
Oscar V. de L. Milosz : The Bridge 166
Ou Yang Hsiu : Fisherman 134
Philip Larkin : The Card-Players 201
Philip Levine : A Sleepless Night 26
Po Chü-I : Sleeping on Horseback 172
A Dream of Mountaineering 87
After Collecting the Autumn Taxes 111
After Getting Drunk, Becoming Sober in the Night 246
Climbing the Ling-Ying Terrance and Looking North 267
Golden Bells 245
Lodging with the Old Man of the Stream 284
Rain 112
Starting Early 86
The Philosophers: Lao-tzu 244
Madly Singing in the Mountains 120
Rainer Maria Rilke : Going Blind 195
Raymond Carver : The Window 159
Raymond Caver : Wine 248
Robert Creeley : Like They Say 18
Robert Francis : Waxwings 25
Robert Frost : The Most of It 46
Robert Hass : Late Spring 27
Robert Hass : The Image 62
Robert Morgan : Bellrope 57
Robert Morgan : Honey 37
Robinson Jeffers : Boats in Fog 60
Carmel Point 34
Cremation 230
Evening Ebb 61
Rolf Jacobsen : Cobalt 63
Express Train 92
Rubber 155
The Catacombs in San Callisto 124
Ryszard Krynicki : I Can't Help You 300
Sandor Weores : Rain 174
The Plain 129
Seamus Heaney : From 'Clearances', In Memoriam M.K.H. (1911-1984) 183
Sharon Olds : I Go Back to May 1937 205
Shu Ting : Perhaps... 299
Southern Bushmen : The Day We Die 289
Steve Kowit : In the Morning 215
Cosmetics Do No Good 217
Notice 199
What Chord Did She Pluck 227
When He Pressed His Lips 224
Su Man Shu : Exile in Japan 114
Su Tung P'o : On a Painting by Wang the Clerk of Yen Ling 56
Tadeusz Rozewicz : A Sketch for a Modern Love Poem 231
Tadeusz Rozewicz : A Voice 207
Ted Kooser : Late Lights in Minnesota 153
Theodore Roethke : Carnations 33
Moss-Gathering 23
Thomas Merton : An Elegy for Ernest Hemingway 208
Tomas Tranströmer : Outskirts 130
Syros 126
Tracks 154
Tu Fu : Another Spring 113
Clean After Rain 150
Dejeuner sur l'Herbe 241
Coming Home Late at Night 256
Snow Storm 257
South Wind 149
Sunset 147
To Pi Ssu Yao 181
Traveling Northward 110
Visitors 283
Winter Dawn 148
Valery Larbaud : Images 77
W.S. Merwin : Dusk in Winter 30
For the Anniversary of My Death 272
Utterance 198
Wallace Stevens : Study of Two Pears 64
Walt Whitman : A Farmer Picture 55
A Noiseless Patient Spider 210
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim 187
As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods 186
By the Bivoac's Fitful Flame 168
Cavalry Crossing a Ford 141
From 'I Sing the Body Electric' 185
Dirge for Two Veterans 188
From 'The Sleepers' 202
I Am the Poet 53
The Runner 55
Wang Chien : The New Wife 192
The South 109
Wang Wei : Song about Xi Shi 179
Song of Marching with the Army 89
Watching the Hunt 90
Wayne Dodd : Of Rain and Air 173
William Blake : From 'Milton' 54
William Carlos Williams : To a Poor Old Woman 191
Proletarian Portrait 190
The Red Wheelbarrow 66
William Stafford : Vacation 95
Wislawa Szymborska : Four in the Morning 22
In Praise of My Sister 252
In Praise of Self-Deprecation 21
Seen from Above 41
View with a Grain of Sand 67
Yoruba Tribe : Invocation of the Creator 273
Zbigniew Herbert : Elegy of Fortinbras 301
Zbigniew Machej : Orchards in July 29
Contents : Thematic (as in the book)
Introduction xv
Epiphany 1
D.H. Lawrence : Maximus 5
Kikaku : Haiku 6
Issa : Haiku 6
Jean Follain : Music of Spheres 7
Carlos Drummond de Andrade : In the Middle of the Road 8
Nature 9
David Wagoner : The Author of American
Ornithology Sketches a Bird, Now Extinct 13
Loons Mating 15
Jean Follain : A Taxidermist 16
Li-Young Lee : Irises 17
Robert Creeley : Like They Say 18
Adam Zagajewski : Moths 19
Mary Oliver : The Kingfisher 20
Wislawa Szymborska : In Praise of Self-Deprecation 21
Four in the Morning 22
Theodore Roethke : Moss-Gathering 23
Denise Levertov : Living 24
Robert Francis : Waxwings 25
Philip Levine : A Sleepless Night 26
Robert Hass : Late Spring 27
Zbigniew Machej : Orchards in July 29
W.S. Merwin : Dusk in Winter 30
D.H. Lawrence : Butterfly 31
Gary Snyder : Dragonfly 32
Theodore Roethke : Carnations 33
Robinson Jeffers : Carmel Point 34
Galway Kinnell : Daybreak 35
D.H. Lawrence : Mystic 36
Robert Morgan : Honey 37
Joanne Kyger : Destruction 38
Mary Oliver : Wild Geese 40
Wislawa Szymborska : Seen from Above 41
Jane Hirshfield : A Story 42
Jean Follain : Face the Animal 43
Jorge Guillén : Flight 44
Emily Dickinson : A Narrow Fellow in the Grass 45
Robert Frost : The Most of It 46
Anna Swir, The Sea and the Man 47
The secret of a thing 49
Walt Whitman : I Am the Poet 53
William Blake : From 'Milton' 54
Walt Whitman : The Runner 55
A Farmer Picture 55
Su Tung P'o : On a Painting by Wang the Clerk of
Yen Ling 56
Robert Morgan : Bellrope 57
Judah Al-Harizi : The Lightning 58
The Sun 58
The Lute 59
Robinson Jeffers : Boats in Fog 60
Evening Ebb 61
Robert Hass : The Image 62
Rolf Jacobsen : Cobalt 63
Wallace Stevens : Study of Two Pears 64
William Carlos Williams : The Red Wheelbarrow 66
Wislawa Szymborska : View with a Grain of Sand 67
Francis Ponge : The Frog 69
Aleksander Wat : Facing Bonnard 70
Muso Soseki : Magnificent Peak 71
Denise Levertov : Witness 72
Travel 73
Valery Larbaud : Images 77
Blaise Cendrars : Aleutian Islands 79
Fish Cove 80
Harvest 81
South 82
Frisco-City 83
Ancient Air 84
Chang Chi : Coming at Night to a Fisherman's Hut 85
Po Chü-I : Starting Early 86
A Dream of Mountaineering 87
Li Po : Ancient Air 88
Wang Wei : Song of Marching with the Army 89
Watching the Hunt 90
Chang Yan-hao : Recalling the Past at T'ung Pass 91
Rolf Jacobsen : Express Train 92
Antonio Machado : Rainbow at Night 93
William Stafford : Vacation 95
John Haines : The Train Stops at Healy Fork 96
Bronislaw Maj : Seen Fleetingly, from a Train 97
Edward Field : A Journey 98
Ch'in Juan : Along the Grand Canal 100
Wang Wei : Morning, Sailing into Xinyang 101
John Haines : On the Mountain 102
Jaan Kaplinski : We Started Home, my Son and I 103
Places 105
Wang Chien : The South 109
Tu Fu : Traveling Northward 110
Po Chü-I : After Collecting the Autumn Taxes 111
Rain 112
Tu Fu : Another Spring 113
Su Man Shu : Exile in Japan 114
Joseph Brodsky : In the Lake District 115
Odysseus to Telemachus 116
Louis Simpson : After Midnight 117
Allen Ginsberg : A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley 118
James Applewhite : Prayer for My Son 119
Po Chü-I : Madly Singing in the Mountains 120
Elizabeth Bishop : Brazil, January 1, 1502 121
Rolf Jacobsen : The Catacombs in San Callisto 124
Gunnar Ekëlof : Greece 125
Tomas Tranströmer : Syros 126
Linda Gregg : Night Music 127
Adam Zagajewski : Auto Mirror 128
Sandor Weores : The Plain 129
Tomas Tranströmer : Outskirts 130
David Kirby : To a French Structuralist 131
Antonio Machado : Summer Night 132
Wang Wei : A White Turtle Under a Waterfall 133
Ou Yang Hsiu : Fisherman 134
Liu Tsung-Yüan : Old Fisherman 135
Wang Wei : Magnolia Basin 136
The moment 137
Walt Whitman : Cavalry Crossing a Ford 141
Aloysius Bertrand : The Mason 142
Kenneth Rexroth : Signature of All Things 144
The Heart of Herakles 146
Tu Fu : Sunset 147
Winter Dawn 148
South Wind 149
Clean After Rain 150
Gary Snyder : Late October Camping in the Sawtooths 151
Keith Wilson : Dusk in My Backyard 152
Ted Kooser : Late Lights in Minnesota 153
Tomas Tranströmer : Tracks 154
Rolf Jacobsen : Rubber 155
Al Zolynas : Zen of Housework 156
Bronislaw Maj : An August Afternoon 158
Raymond Carver : The Window 159
Jean Follain : Buying 160
Black Meat 161
School and Nature 162
Linda Gregg : A Dark Thing Inside the Day 163
Aleksander Wat : From 'Songs of a Wanderer' 164
Oscar V. de L. Milosz : The Bridge 166
Jaan Kaplinski : My Wife and Children 167
Walt Whitman : By the Bivouac's Fitful Flame 168
Eamon Grennan : Woman at Lit Window 169
Charles Simic : Empire of Dreams 171
Po Chü-I : Sleeping on Horseback 172
Wayne Dodd : Of Rain and Air 173
Sandor Weores : Rain 174
People among people 175
Wang Wei : Song about Xi Shi 179
Dancing Woman, Cockfighter Husband,
and the Impoverished Sage 180
Tu Fu : To Pi Ssu Yao 181
Mei Yao Ch'en : A Dream at Nght 182
Seamus Heaney : From 'Clearances', In Memoriam
M.K.H. (1911-1984) 183
Constantine Cavafy : Supplication 184
Walt Whitman : From 'I Sing the Body Electric' 185
As Toilsome I Wander'd Virginia's Woods 186
A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Dim 187
Dirge for Two Veterans 188
William Carlos Williams : Proletarian Portrait 190
To a Poor Old Woman 191
Wang Chien : The New Wife 192
Al Zolynas : Love in the Classroom 193
Rainer Maria Rilke : Going Blind 195
Leonard Nathan : Toast 196
Bladder Song 197
W.S. Merwin : Utterance 198
Steve Kowit : Notice 199
Anna Swir : The Same Inside 200
Philip Larkin : The Card-Players 201
Walt Whitman : From 'The Sleepers' 202
Anna Swir : I Wash the Shirt 204
Sharon Olds : I Go Back to May 1937 205
Tadeusz Rozewicz : A Voice 207
Thomas Merton : An Elegy for Ernest Hemingway 208
Walt Whitman : A Noiseless Patient Spider 210
Woman's Skin 211
Steve Kowit : In the Morning 215
Chu Shu Chen : Morning 216
Steve Kowit : Cosmetics Do No Good 217
Li Ch'ing-chao : Hopelessness 218
Anna Swir : The Greatest Love 219
She Does Not Remember 220
Linda Gregg : Adult 221
Anna Swir : Thank You, My Fate 222
The Second Madrigal 223
Steve Kowit : When He Pressed His Lips 224
Jean Follain : A Mirror 225
Emperor Ch'ien-wen of Liang : Getting up in Winter 226
Steve Kowit : What Chord Did She Pluck 227
Denise Levertov : A woman meets an old lover 228
May Swenson : Question 229
Robinson Jeffers : Cremation 230
Tadeusz Rozewicz : A Sketch for a Modern Love Poem 231
Anna Swir : I Talk to My Body 233
Troubles with the Soul at Morning Calisthenics 234
I Starve My Belly for a Sublime Purpose 235
Situations 237
Tu Fu : Dejeuner sur l'Herbe 241
Joanne Kyger : And with March a Decade in Bolinas 242
Aleksander Wat : A Joke 243
Po Chü-I : The Philosophers: Lao-tzu 244
Golden Bells 245
After Getting Drunk, Becoming Sober in the Night 246
Wayne Dodd : Of His Life 247
Raymond Caver : Wine 248
Franz Wright : Depiction of Childhood 250
James Tate : Teaching the Ape to Write 251
Wislawa Szymborska : In Praise of My Sister 252
Lawrence Raab : The Sudden Appearance of a
Monster at a Window 254
Tu Fu : Coming Home Late at Night 256
Snow Storm 257
Bronislaw Maj : A Leaf 258
Anna Swir : Poetry Reading 259
Nonattachment 261
Raymond Carver : The Cobweb 265
Denise Levertov : Eye Mask 266
Po Chü-I :
Climbing the Ling-Ying Terrance and Looking North 267
Eskimo (anonymous) : Magic Words 268
Nachman of Bratzlav : From 'The Torah of the Void' 269
Jelaluddin Rumi : Little by Little, Wean Yourself 271
W.S. Merwin : For the Anniversary of My Death 272
Yoruba Tribe : Invocation of the Creator 273
Chuang Tzu : Man Is Born in Tao 274
The Need to Win 275
Jelaluddin Rumi : Out Beyond Ideas 276
Li Po : The Birds Have Vanished 277
Denise Levertov : Contraband 278
Ch'ang Yu : A Ringing Bell 279
Wang Wei : Lazy about Writing Poems 280
A Farewell 281
Drifting on the Lake 282
Tu Fu : Visitors 283
Po Chü-I : Lodging with the Old Man of the Stream 284
Miron Bialoszewski : A Ballad of Going Down to the Store 285
Muso Soseki : Old Man at Leisure 286
Kenneth Rexroth : From 'The City of the Moon' 287
Kenneth Rexroth : A Long Lifetime 288
Southern Bushmen : The Day We Die 289
Anna Kamienska : A Prayer That Will Be Answered 290
History 291
Leopold Staff : Foundations 295
Anna Swir, I'm afraid of fire 296
Aleksander Wat : From Persian Parables 297
Julia Hartwig : Above Us 298
Shu Ting : Perhaps... 299
Ryszard Krynicki : I Can't Help You 300
Zbigniew Herbert : Elegy of Fortinbras 301
Moushegh Ishkhan :
The Armenian Language is the Home of the Armenian 303
Naomi Lazard : Ordinance on Arrival 304
Constantine Cavafy : Waiting for the Barbarians 305
--- blurb:
Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz selects and introduces 300 of his favorite
poems in this “magnificent collection” that ranges “widely across time and
continents, from eighth century China to contemporary americana” (San
Francisco Chronicle).
amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail) 2012 Apr 20