Description
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsVOLUME A: THE ANCIENT WORLD
THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
The Babylonian Theogony (c. 2nd millennium B.C.E), (trans. W. G. Lambert)
A Memphite Theology (c. 2500 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)
Genesis: Chapters 1-11 (1st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Robert Alter)
Translations: Genesis
POETRY OF LOVE AND DEVOTION (c. 3rd to 2nd millennium B.C.E.)
Last night, as I, the queen, was shining bright (trans. S. N. Kramer)
Egyptian Love Songs (trans. W. K. Simpson)
Distracting is the foliage of my pasture (trans. W. K. Simpson)
I sail downstream in the ferry by the pull of the current (trans. W. K. Simpson)
The voice of the turtledove speaks out (trans. W. K. Simpson)
I embrace her, and her arms open wide (trans. W. K. Simpson)
One, the lady love without a duplicate (trans. W. K. Simpson)
How well the lady knows to cast the noose (trans. W. K. Simpson)
Why need you hold converse with your heart? (trans. W. K. Simpson)
I passed by her house in the dark (trans. W. K. Simpson)
THE SONG OF SONGS (1st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Jerusalem Bible translation)
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (c. 1200 B.C.E.), (trans. Maureen Gallery Kovacs)
Perspectives: Death and Immortality
The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld (late 2nd millennium B.C.E), (trans. Stephanie Dalley)
from The Book of the Dead (2nd millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)
Letters to the Dead (2nd to 1st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Gardiner and Sethe)
Kabti-Ilani-Marduk: Erra and Ishum (8th century B.C.E.), (trans. David Damrosch)
Crosscurrents
THE BOOK OF JOB (6th century B.C.E.), (trans. Revised Standard Version)
Resonances
from The Babylonian Theodicy
Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Psalm 102 “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come unto thee!”
Perspectives: Strangers in a Strange Land
The Story of Sinuhe (c. 1925 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)
The Two Brothers (c. 1200 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)
The Joseph Story (1st millennium B.C.E.), (New International Version ) Genesis 37-50
The Book of Ruth (c. late 6th century B.C.E.), (New International Version)
Crosscurrents
CLASSICAL GREECE
HOMER (8th century B.C.E.)
from The Iliad (trans. Richmond Lattimore)
Book 1: The Wrath of Achilles
Book 18: Achilles' Sheild
Book 22: The Death of Hektor
Book 24: Achilles and Priam
Resonance
Filip Visnjic: The Death of Kraljevic Marko (trans. Foley)
The Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles)
Book 1. Athena Inspires the Prince
Book 2. Telemachus Sets Sail
Book 3. King Nestor Remembers
Book 4. The King and Queen of Sparta
Book 5. Odysseus - Nymph and Shipwreck
Book 6. The Princess and the Stranger
Book 7. Phaeacia's Halls and Gardens
Book 8. A Day for Songs and Contests
Book 9. In the One-Eyed Giant's Cave
Book 10. The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea
Book 11. The Kingdom of the Dead
Book 12. The Cattle of the Sun
Book 13. Ithaca at Last
Book 14. The Loyal Swineherd
Book 15. The Prince Sets Sail for Home
Book 16. Father and Son
Book 17. Stranger at the Gates
Book 18. The Beggar-King of Ithaca
Book 19. Penelope and Her Guest
Book 20. Portents Gather
Book 21. Odysseus Strings His Bow
Book 22. Slaughter in the Hall
Book 23. The Great Rooted Bed
Book 24. Peace
Resonances
Franz Kafka: The Silence of the Sirens (trans. Muir and Muir)
George Seferis: Upon a Foreign Verse (trans. Keeley and Sherrard)
Derek Walcott: from Omeros
ARCHAIC LYRIC POETRY
ARKHILOKHOS (7th century B.C.E)
Encounter in a Meadow (trans. M. L. West)
The Fox and the Hedgehog (trans. M. L. West)
Elegies (trans. M. L. West)
SAPPHO (early 7th century B.C.E)
Rich-throned immortal Aphrodite (trans. M. L. West)
Come, goddess (trans. M. L. West)
Some think a fleet (trans. M. L. West)
He looks to me to be in heaven (trans. M. L. West)
Love shakes my heart (trans. M. L. West)
Honestly, I wish I were dead (trans. M. L. West)
...she worshipped you (trans. M. L. West)
Like a sweet-apple (trans. M. L. West)
The doorman's feet (trans. M. L. West)
Resonance
Alejandra Pizarnik: Poem, Lovers, Recognition, Meaning of His Absence, Dawn, Falling (trans. Graziano et. al.)
ALKAIOS (7th — 6th century B.C.E)
And fluttered Argive Helen's heart (trans. M. L. West)
They tell that Priam and his sons (trans. M. L. West)
The high hall is agleam (trans. M. L. West)
I can't make out the lie of the winds (trans. M. L. West)
PINDAR (518-438 B.C.E.)
First Olympian Ode (trans. Frank J. Nisetich)
Resonances
John Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn
Rainer Maria Rilke: Archaic Torso of Apollo (trans. Arndt)
AESCHYLUS (525-456 B.C.E.).
Agamemnon (trans. Richmond Lattimore)
Resonance
W. B. Yeats: Leda and the Swan
SOPHOCLES (496-406 B.C.E.)
Oedipus the King (trans. David Grene)
Antigone (trans. R. Fagles)
Resonance
Aristotle: from Poetics (trans. Dorsch)
Perspectives: Tyranny and Democracy
Solon (c. 640-558 B.C.E.)
Our state will never fail (trans. M. L. West)
The commons I have granted (trans. M. L. West)
Those aims for which I called the public meeting (trans. M. L. West)
Thucydides (c. 460-400 B.C.E.)
from The Peloponnesian War (trans. Steven Lattimore)
Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.E)
Apology (trans. Jowett)
EURIPIDES (c. 480-405 B.C.E.)
The Medea (trans. Rex Warner)
Resonance
Friedrich Nietzsche: from The Birth of Tragedy (trans. Fadiman)
Crosscurrents
ARISTOPHANES (445-c.380 B.C.E.)
Lysistrata (trans. J. Henderson)
EARLY SOUTH ASIA
THE MAHABHARATA OF VYASA (last centuries B.C.E.-early centuries C.E.)
Book 2: The Friendly Dice Game (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
Book 5: The Temptation of Karna (trans. J.A.B. van Buitenen)
Book 6: from The Bhagavad Gita (trans. Barbara Stoler Miller)
Translations: The Bhagavad Gita
Resonances
Kautilya: from The Treatise on Power (trans. Kangle)
Asoka: from Inscriptions (trans. Nikam and McKeon)
THE RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI (last centuries B.C.E.)
Book 2: The Exile of Rama (trans. Sheldon Pollock)
Book 3: The Abduction of Sita (trans. Sheldon Pollock)
Book 6: The Death of Ravana and The Fire Ordeal of Sita (trans. Goldman et al.)
Resonances
from A Public Address, 1989: The Birthplace of God Cannot Be Moved (trans. Busch)
Daya Pawar, et al.: We Are Not Your Monkeys (trans. Patwardban)
Perspectives: What is “Literature”?
The Ramayana of Valmiki
The Invention of Poetry (trans. Robert P. Goldman)
Rajashekhara (early 900s)
from Inquiry into Literature (trans. Sheldon Pollock)
Anandavardhana (mid-800s)
from Light on Suggestion (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls et al.)
Crosscurrents
LOVE IN A COURTLY LANGAUGE
THE TAMIL ANTHOLOGIES (2nd -3rd century)
Orampokiyar: What Her Girl Friend Said (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
Anonymous: What Her Girl Friend Said to Him (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
Kapliar: What She Said (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
Uruttiran: What She Said to Her Girl Friend (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
Maturaittamilkkutta Katuvan Mallanar: What the Servants Said to Him (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
Vanmanipputi: What She Said to Her Girl Friend (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)
THE SEVEN HUNDRED SONGS OF HALA (2nd-3rd century)
At night, cheeks blushed (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
After a quarrel (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
His form (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
While the bhikshu (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
Though he's wronged me (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
Tight lads in fields (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
He finds the missionary position (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
When she bends to touch (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
As though she'd glimpsed (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
Those men (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)
THE HUNDRED POEMS OF AMARU (7th century)
She is the child, but I the one of timid heart (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
You will return in an hour? (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
As he came to bed the knot fell open of itself (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
At first our bodies knew a perfect oneness (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
Your palm erases from your cheek the painted ornament (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
They lay upon the bed each turned aside (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
If you are angry with me, you of lotus eyes (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
You listened not to words of friends (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
At day's end as the darkness crept apace (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
Held her (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
Lush clouds in (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)
KALIDASA (4th -5th century)
Shakuntala and the Ring of Recollection (trans. B. S. Miller)
Resonances
Kuntaka: from The Life-force of Literary Beauty (trans. Krishnamoorthy)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: On Shakuntala (trans. Pollock)
Rabindranath Tagore: from Shakuntala: Its Inner Meaning
CHINA : THE CLASSICAL TRADITION
THE BOOK OF SONGS (1000-600 B.C.E.)
1 The Ospreys Cry (trans. Arthur Waley)
5 Locusts (trans. Arthur Waley)
20 Plop Fall the Plums (trans. Arthur Waley)
23 In the Wilds is a Dead Doe (trans. Arthur Waley)
Resonances
In the wilds there is a dead deer (trans. Bernard Karlgren)
Lies a dead deer on younder plain (trans. Ezra Pound)
26 Cypress Boar (trans. Arthur Waley)
41 Northern Wind (trans. Arthur Waley)
45 Of Fair Girls (trans. Arthur Waley)
26 Cypress Boat (trans. Arthur Waley)
76 I Beg You, Zhong (trans. Arthur Waley)
82 The Lady Says (trans. Arthur Waley)
94 Out in the Bushlands a Creeper Grows (trans. Arthur Waley)
Resonances
In the open grounds there is the creeping grass (trans. Bernhard Karlgren)
Mid the bind-grass on the plain (trans. Ezra Pound)
96 The Cock Has Crowed (trans. Arthur Waley)
113 Big Rat (trans. Arthur Waley)
119 Tall Pear Tree (trans. Arthur Waley)
123 Tall is the Pear Tree (trans. Arthur Waley)
143 Moon Rising (trans. Arthur Waley)
154 The Seventh Month (trans. Arthur Waley)
166 May Heaven Guard (trans. Arthur Waley)
Resonances
Heaven protects and secures you (trans. Bernhard Karlgren)
Heaven conserve thy course in quietness (trans. Ezra Pound)
189 The Beck (trans. Arthur Waley)
234 What Plant is not Faded? (trans. Arthur Waley)
238 Oak Clumps (trans. Arthur Waley)
245 Birth to the People (trans. Arthur Waley)
