Willis Barnstone

The Apocalypse (1st-2nd century, C.E.), also known as Revelations, is attributed to John of Patmos. A succession of angels reveals that God will intervene decisively in the present evil age and reward his long-suffering elect. Reflecting the Romans’ oppression of Christians and Jews, and influenced by the apocalyptic writings of the Old Testament’s Book of Daniel, The Apocalypse is the great epic poetic work of the New Testament. As the translator Willis Barnstone puts it, “Like the Book of Job, the Apocalypse is an extended poem, as densely poetic as Blake’s Jerusalem, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, or Gerard Manley Hopkins’s The Wreck of the Deutschland. Here reissued in a Bibelot edition, it is rendered in blank verse, remarkably translated by Willis Barnstone, the distinguished scholar, translator, and poet.

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."

The words of a genius: Borges at Eighty transcends our expectations of ordinary conversation. In these interviews with Barnstone, Dick Cavett, and Alastair Reid, Borges touches on favorite writers (Whitman, Poe, Emerson) and familiar themes — labyrinths, mystic experiences, and death — and always with great, throw-away humor. For example, discussing nightmares, he concludes, “When I wake up, I wake to something worse. It’s the astonishment of being myself.”

The Apocalypse (1st-2nd century, C.E.), also known as Revelations, is attributed to John of Patmos. A succession of angels reveals that God will intervene decisively in the present evil age and reward his long-suffering elect. Reflecting the Romans’ oppression of Christians and Jews, and influenced by the apocalyptic writings of the Old Testament’s Book of Daniel, The Apocalypse is the great epic poetic work of the New Testament. As the translator Willis Barnstone puts it, “Like the Book of Job, the Apocalypse is an extended poem, as densely poetic as Blake’s Jerusalem, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, or Gerard Manley Hopkins’s The Wreck of the Deutschland. Here reissued in a Bibelot edition, it is rendered in blank verse, remarkably translated by Willis Barnstone, the distinguished scholar, translator, and poet.

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."

Many regard the work of Saint John of the Cross (1542-91), the 16th century mystic, to be among the finest poetry Spain has produced. Most of these poems were written during a period of nine months, in 1577–78, when Saint John (San Juan de la Cruz) was imprisoned and tortured in the dungeon of a small Carmelite monastery in Toledo, and their recurrant motifs are both metaphysical and deeply personal. Saint John’s poetry of love and joy describes the soul’s passage through dark night to final illumination in mystical union with Absolute Being. The allegory the poet uses is that of earthly love, and the poems are strikingly effective on the immediate level of personal experience, quite apart from their theological meanings. In this they resemble the Old Testament “Song of Songs,” the source of Saint John’s most ambitious poem, “Cántico espiritual.”

The Apocalypse (1st-2nd century, C.E.), also known as Revelations, is attributed to John of Patmos. A succession of angels reveals that God will intervene decisively in the present evil age and reward his long-suffering elect. Reflecting the Romans’ oppression of Christians and Jews, and influenced by the apocalyptic writings of the Old Testament’s Book of Daniel, The Apocalypse is the great epic poetic work of the New Testament. As the translator Willis Barnstone puts it, “Like the Book of Job, the Apocalypse is an extended poem, as densely poetic as Blake’s Jerusalem, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, or Gerard Manley Hopkins’s The Wreck of the Deutschland. Here reissued in a Bibelot edition, it is rendered in blank verse, remarkably translated by Willis Barnstone, the distinguished scholar, translator, and poet.

Many regard the work of Saint John of the Cross (1542-91), the 16th century mystic, to be among the finest poetry Spain has produced. Most of these poems were written during a period of nine months, in 1577–78, when Saint John (San Juan de la Cruz) was imprisoned and tortured in the dungeon of a small Carmelite monastery in Toledo, and their recurrant motifs are both metaphysical and deeply personal. Saint John’s poetry of love and joy describes the soul’s passage through dark night to final illumination in mystical union with Absolute Being. The allegory the poet uses is that of earthly love, and the poems are strikingly effective on the immediate level of personal experience, quite apart from their theological meanings. In this they resemble the Old Testament “Song of Songs,” the source of Saint John’s most ambitious poem, “Cántico espiritual.”