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Chapters And Verse: Religious Literature, Part II

August 2004

This “new testament” of our two-part summer retreat featuring international literature on religious themes begins with Guido Monte’s multilingual account of Creation. Persian poet Abbas Saffari provides a witty, romantic retelling of the Quranic version of the story of Adam and Eve. Rafi Zabor and translator Angela Jaffray introduce us to Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi and his mind-expanding “Epistle on Cosmic Unification.” MuXin explores the difference between religion and ritual, reverence and reward in “The Moment When Childhood Vanishes.” Adolfo Albertazzi lets loose a mischievous Italian spirit in “The Devil in the Decanter.” Poets from a variety of traditions and languages–Yiddish, Greek Orthodox, and Nahuatl (Aztec)–wrestle, plead, worship, doubt, and glory in the divine. And in an extra-canonical addition to material posted in part one, translator Christi Merrill contributes an essay on Vijay Dan Detha.

Seclusion (from the poem “Kotzk”)

By Arn Tseytlin

The Jew is loneliness.

Translated from Yiddish by Zackary Sholem Berger

What Is a Translator’s True Calling?

By Christi A. Merrill

My encounter with Vijay Dan Detha has made me realize that if we refuse to recognize the importance of these literary contributions because they are not deemed absolutely original, we risk losing much more.

The Oracles of the Virgin

By Stylianos S. Charkianakis

Buried inside us were the sounds / of the songs we heard in the cradle

Translated from Greek by Peter Constantine

“Will nothing of my earthly fame endure?”

By Miguel León-Portilla

Will nothing of my earthly fame endure?Not even flowers, not even songs!What can my heart do?In vain we have sprung forth,we have come to be on earth.Let us enjoy ourselves, my friends,let us embrace…

Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

A Song

By Yankev Glatshteyn

The learners split into equal parties / Forbidding, permitting, and deriving.

Translated from Yiddish by Zackary Sholem Berger

Our Story

By Abbas Saffari

We had just met. / I had not discovered the beauty / of the skies

Translated from Persian by Elham Rassi

Genesis (Creation)

and the land was left barren

Translated from Italian by the author

The Happiness of Also Refusing Happiness

By Avrom Lyesin

Cry of pain exalted sings / I am on fire, and in terror: frost

Translated from Yiddish by Zackary Sholem Berger

Epistle on Cosmic Unification

By Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi

Then I shouted: “Oh alas!” and “Alas, my burning heart. I fled from the universe and here I am in it. Where is what I seek?”

Translated from Arabic by Angela Jaffray

Of the Tree and its Four Birds

In Islamic esotericism per se, especially with regard to its metaphysical and exegetical component, everyone before him is an anticipation and everyone after a commentator or interpreter.

“O, giver of life”

By Miguel León-Portilla

Your shadow falls on those who must live on earth.

Translated from Spanish by Earl Shorris & Sylvia Sasson Shorris

The Devil in the Decanter

By Adolfo Albertazzi

So it was that no one had ever been able to send him back to Hell once and for all.

Translated from Italian by Traci Andrighetti

Elegy

By Stylianos S. Charkianakis

However many times I now set out / on the road of return

Translated from Greek by Peter Constantine