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Word count: 4827. ... Read more

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The distinguished American poet reads selections from his poetry, including "The Moving Target," "The Nails," "Bread and Butter," "My Friends," "Lemuel's Blessing," and others. ... Read more

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Selected poems of Osip Mandelstam ... Read more

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In this collection of poems by one of the Ar ab world''s greatest love poets, the author pays homage to th e grace and beauty of women and takes on those who dare to i mpose taboos on women and love. ' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Beauiful passionate poems!!
Qabbani's poems are deeply felt and stir the senses by the reader. He is very well-known in the Arabic world and many lovers enjoy reading his verses. His poems are written for every situation and mood. He can be compared to Paul Éluard and to Neruda.
Beautiful and enjoyable!

glowing, emotional, sensual, pleasing and universal!
Nizar Qabbani's poems have the ability to transport your imagination to the world of longings, passionate encounters and emotional and physical fulfillments. His work is a true celebration of love, women, country and cities.

The poem On Entering the Sea, on which the book's title is based on, is beautiful, simple and deep. Here are some verses:
"Love happened at last
Without intimidation... with symmetry of wish.
So I gave... and you gave
And we were fair.
It happened with marvelous ease
Like writing with jasmine water,
Like a spring flowing from the ground."

His poems are glowing, emotional, sensual, pleasing and universal.

Joyce Akesson author ofLove's Thrilling Dimensions, The Invitation and Majnun Leyla: Poems about Passion

Great Intro
This book is a great intro to Mr. Qabbani's poetry. Everything about it is well done. Cover art, binding, paper stock. All excellent. This volume will have the reader searching for more of his work.

A Tribute to Love and Life
I had thought your love would end my estrangement
but you passed like water between my fingers

~Nizar Qabbani

In my eternal search for poetry infused with images of water and passion, "On Entering the Sea" appeared on the Amazon horizon. How I love this site and the ability to locate life-enhancing selections of great beauty.

The poetry of Nizar Qabbani requires atmosphere and an imagination willing to travel beyond the daily drudgery of existence into longings for home, passionate encounters and the mysteries of sensation. At times his poems have echoes of ancient works that intertwine themselves with modern complexity. His work celebrates the love of country, women and sensuous images of coffeehouses and Andalusian experiences.

I write
to save the woman I love
from the cities of no poetry,
of no love
the cities of frustration and gloom
I write to make her a misty cloud

Only woman and writing
Save us from death.

As an introduction to Nizar Qabbani, On Entering the Sea presents his work in a pleasing arrangement by translator. While the introduction by Salma Khadra Jayyusi presents an overview of the book, how I wished for a section at the end to explain the details behind many of the poems. Would this enhance my enjoyment or do the poems speak of moments so profound, no other explanation is needed? It could be said that many of his poems have a universal appeal and need no further explanation.

While his words glow with a love for the female essence in life and in women, he also explores thoughts of protecting his home, lands he loves and a different perspective on war and loss. "Posters" may be shocking to some and yet it is a representation of how Nizar Qabbani sees the world and wishes for peace all while declaring war on pride. It is highly political and yet he delves into the heart of freedom for all people. Although, I think there are poems I have yet to read which apparently display a more revolutionary approach, although this is not foreign to poets the world over. I enjoyed reading Jerusalem:

Jerusalem, beloved city of mine,
tomorrow your lemon trees will bloom,
your green stalks and branches rise up joyful,
and your eyes will laugh...

He experienced so much pain and loss and was very controversial, especially in his hometown in Damascus where he challenged cultural taboos. Too often I think we as a society have condemned the erotic, all while longing for erotic pleasures of our own. Nizar Qabbani not only sets desire free in poems, he sets women free from oppression. In "Diary of an Indifferent Woman," he writes as a woman:

I want to escape from my own skin
from my own voice, from my own language
and stray like the fragrance of gardens
I want to flee from my own shadow
and from all addresses

By the end of the poem he talks about crystal bottles with dead butterflies and the images become revelations of eternal struggles for independence and for the freedom to love. During his teenage years, his sister committed suicide, because she could not marry the man she loved.

Time after time Nizar Qabbani displays an exceptional understanding of what it means to be female all while revealing what it means to be a man. Insatiable physical love and ecstasy from the sheer vision of a woman become spiritual expressions of love for God himself. "The Book of Love" is worshipful and timeless.

The name of my love.
I wrote it on the water.
I did not know
That the wind rushes by without listening,
That names dissolve in the water.

He also asks: "What is Love?" Then he humorously explains how he cannot change the woman he loves for she is "a storm trapped in a bottle."

Most of the poems are pleasing and passionate, but there are poems displaying private pain and horror as love is ripped from his hands by the ravages of terror. He perfectly describes his grief in an unusual moment where he is standing in the rubble of an attack and remembers his wife and the cadence of her name.

As he finds her handbag in the rubble, we are convinced no man has ever loved his wife this deeply, and yet the universal message makes us realize how many have loved and lost and longed for a woman like Balquis Al-Rawi. The vision he paints of honey, jasmine moons, rubies and roses will remain in my memory for as long as I love poetry.As in many passionate poems, the feelings of the poet flowed through me and appeared in tears. His poem about his mother's death is equally poignant and we are left with the scent of coffee, cardamom seeds and orange blossom water.

If you are a lover of world poetry, the poems of Nizar Qabbani are essential reading. Through his poems you feel the ancient longings of all people in all lands and in his uncensored thoughts, we can truly experience life through his eyes. I can only hope more of his work is translated in the near future. The exciting element of his poetry is often how he absorbs experience and then defeats his own inner tyranny by writing exactly what he thinks to display the beauty of truth. You will hear echoes in his writing and realize how many contemporary spiritual teachers and poets have been students of his poetry.

To peace...

~The Rebecca Review

Unrivalled Passionate Poetry
These are the most passioante poems ever written. Some wail after unrequited love. Some bemoan the one that got away or an opportunity missed or ruined by thier own action. Many express devotion to the love that is present.

And then there are the political poems of longing for a lost land, agony for the end of a way of life and indignation at injustice. He was a great advocate for women's rights, but that work is not included in this collection.

I do not undestand why Qabbani is not better known in the US. In my opinion, he is far superior to Neruda (who was my favorite before I knew Qabbani). Less cliches, but more direct at the same time. And you hear what he has to say and reflect "that is exactly my feeling in this situation, why did I not think of that expresion...could it be said in any other way?"

I discovered him overseas, a few days before he died. I was so distressed to hear of his death, even though I only was familiar with his work a few days. In the Arab world, musicians of all stripes and capabilities attempt to use his poems as lyrics for their music. He has poems for every mood and every problem, each of them speak straight to the soul with emotion. Even people who can not normally appreciate poetry will become obsessed with Qabbani, when reading this collection. ... Read more

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At the pinnacle of a grand and prolific career, W. S. Merwin has given us a shimmering new verse translation of the central section of Dante's Divine Comedy -- the Purgatorio.

Led by Virgil, inspired by his love for Beatrice, Dante makes the arduous journey up the Mountain of Purgatory, where souls are cleansed to prepare them for the ultimate ascent to heaven.Presented with the original Italian text, and with Merwin's notes and commentary, this luminous new interpretation of Dante's great poem of sin, repentance, and salvation is a profoundly moving work of art and the definitive translation for our time.
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Customer Reviews (2)

A real surprise!
So many "translations" by poets are really not translations at all, but adaptations.Some of these can be quite interesting on their own merits. But they are so free as to not count as an experience of the original work.

Not so here.Merwin is seriously respectful of the meaning of the original Italian.And yet his version reads quite well as (rather plain) English verse.By the end one is completely won over. Notes are spare but to the point.

If the Comedy has a weak sister, the Purgatorio would be it.But you would not think so from this very committed translation.

Let's hope Merwin gives us his Inferno and Paradiso.

Excellent work
The Purgatorio continues Dante's Divine Comedy.Here Dante relates the second portion of his journey, up the mountain and terraces of Purgatory.While it is not as interesting to me, personally, as the Inferno or Paradiso.I nonetheless found it to be indispensible.While it suffers from the same flaws as many intermediary books of a given trilogy it provides an excellent bridge between the two other works. ... Read more

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France, Civilization, 18th century, Anecdotes, Maxims, Aphorisms and Apothegms. ... Read more

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Pieces of Shadow gathers a selection of poetry by twentieth century Mexican writer Jaime Sabines, one of the most important figures in Spanish-American Literature. This book assembles poems from his most recognized books, such as Horal (1950), Tarumba (1956), Yuria (1967) or Other Collected Poemes (1950-1995), titles wich earned Sabines many devoted readers and enthusiastic critics. The anthology has been translated into English by American poet W.S. Merwin. In Merwin's words, what captures him of sabines poetry was "the jarring authenticity of pasion in [the] tone, a great cracked bell note o f craving and frustration, irony and anger, outrage and black humor all jangled at once, unabashed, ubsweetened, unappeased, and all of it esssential to the rest". These same features still remain in Sabines' poestry for the new readesrs who will inmerse in the literary work of a classic of modern Mexican literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A basic poet.
Nowadays, you cannot pull apart Jaime Sabines from Latin American Poetry. He did what hadn't been in years. Young readers telling his poems. And as the film "Il Postino" quotes, "Poetry belongs to which needs it, not to it's creator". You can find in this poems all you always wanted to express but you were affraid to do so. He is EXQUISITE but a "day after day poet". Read one poem every night as the dessert of your days. I am proud of such a talent. The translations in this book keep the sensivity that Jabines gave us.He is a master of life. He is now, breaking language and culture, a basic poet.

I DON'T THINK I CAN FIND A BETTER POET THAN JAIME SABINES
No one can express about life, love, death and pain as Sabines did. The simplicity of his words enclose the beauty of "everyday life". He wrote for him, and for common people, not for poets, big writers orcritics. I just can tell one of the most intense experiences of my wholelife, was a reading of his poems in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.More than 3,000 people cried, laughed, cheered, and loved at the same timethere. And the whole show was an old man, reading his poems in awheelchair, behind a desk. Nothing more.

Sabines, a wise-guy poet
Since Sabines has worked on a simple poetry, and since his acceptance has been quite enthusiastic, he has done a lot of easy, quite boring poetry for the people. I would only recommend the first books, "Tarumba","Adán y Eva", "Horal", and "La señal".

The most simple and feel poetry!
Jaime Sabines is the mexican author that write about his earth like this was the heart! His poetry is very popular! and his words are very, very simples...! it is his sensitive!!! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good Plays, but Where's Bernarda Alba?
This edition has two of Lorca's most famous plays:Blood Wedding and Yerma. There is some sense in putting them together; both are relatively later plays, Blood sometimes called his first major. Perhaps more importantly, they have similar settings and themes; both deal with early nineteenth-century rural Spain and focus on central Lorca concerns like desire, repression, ritual, tradition and authority vs. individualism, etc. However, the collection is missing The House of Bernarda Alba, which is usually considered Lorca's masterpiece, has much in common with the other two plays, and is often printed with them. Thus, unless one particularly values this translation, it is greatly preferable to get an edition with the far better play.

The two plays included are not without interest, in large part because the themes are increasingly dramatized through women. This would have been notable anywhere in the 1930s but is even more remarkable in coming from a heavily Catholic country suffering conservative backlash. Mores were stringent, having a profound cultural effect and intensely affecting individuals; transgressors were heavily punished or, as in the case of Lorca himself, even killed. Lorca's sympathy with women's lot is highly notable, and it is hard to deny a strong connection between it and his own tortured existence as a homosexual in a time and place where he could not live openly with impunity. One can legitimately see these works as similar to Henrik Ibsen's famous "problem plays" - dramatizations of contemporary social problems. Lorca bravely calls into question many traditional Spanish and Catholic beliefs, showing their limitations and the tragic effects that sometimes result.

However, there is more to them. Lorca's language has a lyricism and sophistication rarely seen in drama since Ibsen led the switch to prose. He was of course primarily a poet and still mostly known for poetry; we can see a successful melding of drama in the strictest sense with poetry. Some will inevitably say this comes at the expense of other modern drama qualities, primarily realism, and it is certainly true that they are deemphasized. This was of course conscious and essentially a matter of taste. Those who dislike it will almost certainly be averse to Lorca's drama; others may lionize it. I am essentially in-between, unable to see how so many see these works as truly great drama but easily recognizing how far they are above midrange.

More important in any case are universal themes that move the plays beyond time and place. Lorca's work has an all-powerful earthiness focusing on primitive emotions like lust, rage, and despair, making his work accessible to all even at its most arcane. His local focus is intense, and it is near-impossible to avoid biographical readings with an author so ambiguously legendary, but some of his issues are central to the human condition. Also, though characterization was not his forte, his portrayals were heavily, often intensely dramatic, making it easier to identify with what were quite radical concepts. He was of course an artist - and, indeed, a man - well ahead of his time, as reading these very modern works over seventy years later attests. In this way, at least, his writing is easier to appreciate as time passes.

There are substantial differences between the three plays, including quality. With a near-elementary plot but stunningly poetic language, Blood Wedding is at once simpler and more complex. The simple tale is as old as literature - probably as old as humanity -, and it is hard for one to care much about it on its own terms. There is indeed a noticeable Greek tragedy influence in presentation - i.e., violence being offstage - as well as plot, though Lorca is as ever strongly rooted in Spanish culture. However, the play has less conventional presentation, making it intriguing. It is deliberately unrealistic; a near-surreal air pervades, and there is relatively little prose dialogue. More importantly, it is highly symbolic; tropes and figures do not so much accentuate as become essential to the plot. Blood requires close attention to appreciate, not making it the easiest introduction. Thankfully, the lyrical beauty may pull some readers in, leading them to the stronger and more enjoyable Yerma and hopefully even better Lorca.

Yerma has a more original focus, centering on Lorca's time and place with significant universal overtones - the tragedy that results when women are unable to have children in a culture leaving them little else. The play is unsurprisingly a feminist favorite, but anyone with empathy for people in sad situations will see much pathos. Yerma vividly dramatizes the repression of women in early twentieth-century rural Spain, throwing their trials and travails into sharp relief against the general culture. We quickly see how unjust it was, but Lorca knows better than to offer a simple solution, instead showing the tragedy that comes from this very lack. However, reducing the play to didactic status does it something of a disservice, as its empathy for women is sadly not universal. Perhaps more importantly, Yerma is a highly memorable character who earns our sympathy despite carrying her obsession to what can only be called psychosis and committing an unjustifiable act. Dramatically, Yerma is more original than Blood Wedding, shedding the Greek tragedy influence for an intense focus on a single theme and character. Yerma is onstage nearly the whole time and always the focus. Her part is one of modern theater's most difficult; only a tremendous actor could do it convincingly. We can see a definite growth from Blood to Yerma, with Lorca pushing modern theater's boundaries in more than one way.

This brings up the main unavoidable crux in reading Lorca - he is not an easy read. Even those eager to enjoy and/or appreciate him may well have significant difficulty. Matters of taste aside, he uses symbolism so heavily that anyone not paying close attention will miss essential points - even basic plot elements. This and frequent lyrical deployment set him apart from nearly all modern drama; those who do not know what to expect may be taken by inauspicious surprise. These are problems even for those who read Lorca in Spanish, but translation of course compounds them. Since Lorca works his vast knowledge of Spanish culture into his work so thoroughly, those unfamiliar with it will miss much - not only symbolism but even basic plot points. Finally, as one might expect from a writer who was a director and actor as well as writer, Lorca put more emphasis on physical elements than the vast majority of playwrights. These are nearly impossible to reproduce on paper, and he indeed does not even try; stage directions are minimal, and almost no description is given. This was of course not a problem when he was alive, for he could add them himself in production, but readers are now left significantly hanging. There is no solution other than seeing the plays performed, and those who wish only to read him - or are unable to attend a play - must put up with the deficiency. It fortunately is not fatal; there is still much to enjoy and appreciate, even if we are all too aware that we are missing something. Here we are missing something perhaps even more important - Bernarda Alba. Anyone who likes these plays will definitely like it, and anyone who thinks them underwhelming should still check it out. Blood and Yerma are interesting, but there is really no excuse for failing to include the superior work and little, if any, reason to buy this book.

Lorca is misunderstood by small minds
I find it quite amazing that readers find themselves capable of disregarding a playwright's work simply because they have read what could well be a bad edition! This edition of Lorca's Yerma and Blood Wedding isdefinitely not among the best I have read; others do more justice to theoriginal works. Obviously, much of the content and passion is lost upontranslation. I have had the privilege of reading most of Lorca's work inSpanish and must say that he is indeed one of the most influential andtalented playwrights (and poets) of our time. Lorca's work is infused withthe beauty and passion of the Spanish people and culture and it is quitedifficult for us considerably less emotional Americans to understand, letalone feel the intensity of such power; again, this has a lot to do withreading it in English.

He captures human nature and sexuality very passionately!
I read the review of comyking@home.net and I think that you need to develop literary skills(An education perhaps?!). Maybe then you will undrstand what literature is about. Yerma and La casa de Bernada Alba aretwo of the most fascinating books I have ever read. They depict the lifeand frustrations faced by females in an era when chastity, "socialstauts and appearance" influenceda woman's life. I think these booksare extremely interesting and insightful. One must have an exceptionalliterary background to appreciate this type of literature.

I did not like it at all.
The book was trash.It had no plot, no story, and no action.I couldn't wait to put it down it was so bad, but I had jury duty and there was nothing else to do.I wish I had brought a different book.PLEASE DO NOTGET CAUGHT IN THE SAME SITUATION!!!THIS BOOK IS HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A great play in which many important themes are presented
This is one of Lorca's most interesting plays, in which a dominant and strict mother controls the lives of her daughters.Many themes are expressed in this play: social pressure, love, dominance, etc. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Midnight in the Garden of Satori and Samsara
Right in this very book Muso Soseki (a very important Japanese Zen Rinzai monk of the "Five Mountains" milieu) quotes with approval a former Zen monk saying, "It is a pity that students with great capacity waste their whole lives reading widely in the native and foreign classics, cultivating the art of composition and in that way leaving no time for coming to see clearly into their Original Nature." Thus Muso would be the very last to complain about the fact that this translation of his poems and sermons is clearly intended for the serious American Zen practitioner and not for the scholar (of Japanese Religion, of Buddhism generally or Zen specifically, of Japanese literature, or whatnot). That said, no scholar has yet bothered to come forth with a more academically definitive treatment of this key figure in Zen Buddhist history, so this is it folks, take it or leave it.

Still, a lot of hard work has gone into this book, and it shows. The introduction is very helpful, tracing Muso Soseki's biography with care and giving a very straightforward account of the theory and method of translation in what's to follow. This is an odd collaboration, in which Soiku Shigematsu translated the original text into rough, word-for-word English and Merwin reworked this into smooth, idiomatic English. While this gets the job done okay overall, it creates an odd, stilted syntax bordering perilously close to the unidiomatic in spots--this is true especially for the sermons.

The poems themselves evince a subtle, quiet religiosity. They are elegant, but in a deep and resonant manner (as opposed to some of the more admittedly shallow work of some of his contemporaries). They are definitely Buddhist in theme--the poems treat of the monastic lifestyle, of the impact and nature of spiritual experience, and of friendships with other monks in the Dharma. There are 130 poems in all, so one gets a pretty good sense of Muso's range.

The sermons are quite interesting in their own right and relevant to issues in Buddhist Studies under debate today (scholars take note!). There has been a lot of ink spilled on Zen Buddhism's ambiguous attitude towards reading, textuality, and scriptural study, and it is thus interesting that the first (and longest) sermon is a complicated discussion of this problem in which Muso grapples with the complexities of the issues involved (in dialogue with a tenaciously heckling monk). The second set of sermons show us Muso relating his religious views on gardening; a kind of cynical deconstructive instinct has led some in academia today to claim that the great temple gardens of Kyoto had no spiritual significance or symbolism. A few words from Muso Soseki here pretty much puncture that whole line of claptrap. Finally, we get to see the religious mentor in Muso, as he admonishes his disciples on the proper priorities for aspiring monks.

So despite a few limitations, this highly interesting book gives us an invaluable glimpse of the religious views and spiritual sensibility of Muso Soseki, our only real glimpse in English of this great monk. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Antioch Review, published by Antioch Review, Inc. on June 22, 1998. The length of the article is 478 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Hon W D Smith Pres Bd of Health Honolulu. (untitled poem)(excerpt from 'The Folding Cliffs')
Author: W.S. Merwin
Publication: The Antioch Review (Refereed)
Date: June 22, 1998
Publisher: Antioch Review, Inc.
Volume: v56Issue: n3Page: p269(1)

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