Willis Barnstone has a problem: he’s too good. Everything he writes, from his invaluable The Other Bible, a compendium of holy texts no writer should be without, through his brilliant translations and beautiful poems, is a breathtaking achievement.

Carolyn Kizer

To Touch The Sky

by Willis Barnstone

Translated from Greek (ancient) by Willis Barnstone

To Touch the Sky contains Willis Barnstone’s translations of some of the most profound and inspiring writing of world literature: ten mystical and spiritual poets spanning three thousand years. The theme of the whole volume is stated in the title of the book, from a fragment of Sappho (I could not hope/to touch the sky/with my two arms"). As Barnstone says in his introduction, “There is a moment of vision, otherness, apparent timelessness, erotic sublimity, where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, for which there is no easy verbal equivalent except in the metaphors of poetry. These experiences are called ’ineffable’ and relegated to oblivion, but in the instance of our authors, the unsayable has been refashioned into the precision of poetry."

Paperback(published Feb, 01 1999)

ISBN
9780811213967
Price US
15.95
Page Count
240
Portrait of Willis Barnstone

Willis Barnstone

Contemporary American poet and translator from Ancient Greek

Willis Barnstone has a problem: he’s too good. Everything he writes, from his invaluable The Other Bible, a compendium of holy texts no writer should be without, through his brilliant translations and beautiful poems, is a breathtaking achievement.

Carolyn Kizer