If you liked this book I sugjest you check out Aliki's own work and for that matter her fathers. If you would like a compleate list of that work go to Barnstones.com. She is a wonderful poet and you will find that some of her inspiration comes from the poets in "A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now". Her brother also writes wonderful poetry I recomend "Impure" by her brother. "Madly in Love" is her great work. I would suppose her book from her childhood is also wonderful. I look forward to more of her work.

This is one of my favorite poetry anthologies because it covers such a wide expanse of time and includes women's voices from all over the world. This anthology has introduced me to so many women poets that I otherwise never would have met. It is incredible to realize that women have ALWAYS and everywhere been writing, and I am always inspired by the tradition of my mothers when I read this book. As Sappho said, "Someone, I tell you/ will remember us."

This is my all-time favorite anthology; I give it as a gift whenever I can. I like the idea of presenting voices that have not always gotten the attention they deserve, but even more than that I am amazed at the the sheer range of genius. There's hardly a dud in here.

I particularly love the translation of Marina Tsveteyeva's "Poem of the End." The punctuation so accurately reflects the language and tone. I once saw another translation in one of those "Best Loved Poems of Insipid People" anthologies that was painfully stupid. I wish I could read the Russian original....

Anyway, I can't think of a better resource to introduce you to a wide range of poets you might not otherwise have access to.

This polished translation brilliantly reflects those spare but sparkling lines from the winsome poet of a lonely isle and heart. I find it still superb after many readings. Highly recommended.

"To Eros: You crush me." The tenderness and splendor of Sappho's poetry has never been so lusciously rendered as in this translation. Every little word sings with love and warmth. Thank you, Willis Barnstone, for omitting the cumbersone ellipses and brackets of translations past. Now we can enjoy Sappho's passion undisturbed.

This bilingual edition (masterfully translated by Norman Shapiro) carefully transposes the French originals into a formal, poetic English idiom, which captures both the meaning and the music of Baudelaire, the fallen angel and champion of evil. Though conventional in terms of his metrics and poetic forms, Baudelaire is arguably the first great Modernist poet. One dives into the murky miasmata of these pages to discover a world of perverse pleasures, wrathful and sordid imagery and unregenerate vice glorified by one of its most eloquent spokesmen. Baudelaire, a tortured personality, in which profound guilt is contraposed with carnal lust, Satanism, delight in cruelty and a longing for hell, is one of the towering giants of modern European literature. His poetry is a bitter fruit that few can savour with impunity.

Shapiro manages to capture Baudelaire's essence without sacrificing his form. These versions read like English poetry. They are the best I have read--and I have read them all, past and present. Highly recommended for admirers of Baudelaire and students of the craft (and art!) of literary translation.

The sonnet form was introduced to Spain from Sicily in the fifteenth century through the writing of El Marqués de Santillana (1398-1458), a poet who wrote Petrarchan sonnets in Spanish. During the Renaissance, the Italian sonnet made its way to most of the countries of Western Europe. In England, Edmund Spenser changed the Petrarchan rhyming form of 'abba abba cdecde' to 'abab bcbc cdcd ee,' and William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets with the form 'abab cdcd efef gg.' As Willis Barnstone says in the introduction to his book, 'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet,' 'the Spanish sonnet, a literary vagabond in courtly dress, began in the court of the Sicilian Frederic II, went up to England, and finally, seven centuries after its Italian birth, with its picaresque wits and form intact, dropped down just above the Antarctic Circle to appear in the poems of the Argentine Anglophile [his maternal grandmother was English] Borges.' Professor Barnstone goes on to present a thorough history of the evolution of the Spanish sonnet and a colorful biography of six Spanish language poets who used the form. His writing is informed by his long friendship with Jorge Luis Borges. Barnstone offers here a sampling of 112 Spanish sonnets by these six masters, placed side by side along with his own magnificent translations.

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) is described as a 'monstruo de la naturaleza' [monster of nature] because of his prodigious outpouring of writing. 'Like Swift, Dostoyevski, and Kafka, he is one of the most tormented spirits and visionaries of world literature ['El Buscón' (The Swindler), 1626, is his masterpiece] and also one of the funniest writers ever to pick up a sharp, merciless pen.' Though Quevedo's sonnets are at times scatological and darkly satirical, they are also humorous and hopeful.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51-1695) was a Mexican discalced Carmelite nun who is considered by some religious scholars to be the first female theologian of the Americas. Although I was familiar with her love poems and her articulate defense of a woman's right to write in 'Response to Sor Filotea,' I had not read her sonnets in translation before. As he does with all six sonneteers, Barnstone faithfully maintains Sor Juana's rhyming, meter, and cadence in his translations of her sonnets. His analysis encompasses her writing and her life, including some critique of Octavio Paz's definitive biography, 'Sor Juana, or The Traps of Faith.'

Antonio Machada (1875-1939) recalls the landscape of his native Sevilla in his sonnets. In, 'El amor y la sierra' (Love and the Sierra), he writes, 'Calabaga por agria serranía / una tarde, entre roca cenicienta. (He was galloping over harsh sierra ground, / one afternoon, amid the ashen rock).' Barnstone calls Machado 'the Wang Wei of Spain' because 'he uses the condition of external nature to express his passion.' As Petrarch had his Laura, Machado had his Guiomar (Pilar de Valderrama). In 'Dream Below the Sun,' he writes, 'Your poet / thinks of you. Distance / is of lemon and violet, / the fields still green. / Come with me, Guiomar. / The sierra will absorb us. / The day is wearing out / from oak to oak.'

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright who was affected by Luis de Góngorra and gongorismo. His 'Gypsy Ballads' was 'the most popular book of poetry in the Spanish language in his time.' Barnstone states that 'his closest attachment, his passion, was the painter Salvador Dalí,' with whom he carried on a six year love affair. Luis Buñuel castigated him for his Andalusianism; indeed, Lorca felt that Buñuel's satiric and surrealist film 'Un chien andalu' mocked him. After traveling to New York and Havana, Lorca became 'the playwright of Spain' with his brilliant 'Bodas de Sangre' (Blood Wedding). His 'Sonnets of Dark Love,' unpublished during his lifetime, were probably written to Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, an engineering student. Barnstone believes that 'dark love' is an allusion to San Juan de la Cruz's 'dark night of the soul.'

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) of Argentina considered himself a poet, though he was a master at prose. According to Barnstone, because of the blindness that afflicted Borges in midlife, 'he could compose and polish a sonnet while waiting for a bus or walking down the street' and then later dictate it from memory. 'Borges's speech authenticated his writing, his writing authenticated his speech. To have heard him was to read him. To have read him was to have heard him.' In 'Un ciego' (A Blindman), he says, 'No sé cuál es la cara que me mira / Cuando miro la cara del espejo; / No sé qué anciano acecha en su reflejo / Con silenciosa y ya cansada ira. (I do not know what face looks back at me / When I look at the mirrored face, nor know / What aged man conspires in the glow / Of the glass, silent and with tired fury.)'

Miguel Hernández (1910-1942), a poor goatherd and pastor from the province of Alicante in Spain, wrote his best poetry while imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War. 'In the prisons, Hernández became,' in Barnstone's opinion, 'the consummate poet of light, darkness, soul, time, and death.' One of his poems, 'Llegó con tres heridas' (He came with three wounds), is a popular song, recorded by Joan Baez on her 'Gracias a La Vida' album.

'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet' is recommended to all who love this poetic form and want to know more about the lives of these remarkable poets. A good index and list of references are included for further study.

For those who already know the various authors of this book individually, words will be in excess to describe the treasures contained therein. The five Spanish already classical authors and Jorge Luis Borges closing the group with honors are a guarantee of high quality and deep touching entertainment. Tasting the fluent and sincere social verb of Quevedo, or absorbing in silence the sweet and perfect mysticism of Juana Inés would be sufficient to recommend this book. But we find much more, Machado, García Lorca and Miguel Hernández, marked by the horrors of the Spanish Civil War, found in their sensibility, the way to transform hate and blood into the purest and most powerful poetry. About Borges, well, what can one say about a man of his talents, his well known depth is something you will find easily linked to his enormous sensibility and human solidarity. Definitively, this multiple anthology is a treasure to keep forever.

This book contains an excellent selection of lyric poetry, spanning the entire classical period starting with Archilochus in 7th-century B.C. and ending with the Byzantine Paulus Silentarius in the 6th-century A.D. The topics are also well-varied, from war to women, from high virtue to the downright debaucherous.

Good for the "ADD" reader, who shuns long passages. Most selections are 2-10 lines long.

The publisher hit all the key points, so I'll just say a quick few words. Wang Wei is one of my favorite poets, he paints like DaVinci and moves you like Mozart. Reading his work takes you to a whole new world.

A great escape, and a great way to spend an afternoon. Get this book! You will be pleased, guranteed!

As a student of Greek Lyric poetry, I have spent many an hour in the library pouring over varying translations of many greek lyric poets. This book is by far the most complete, true-to-original book around; it has nearly all earth's remaining greek lyric from the Lyric Age, and, fankly, Barnstone's poems outstrip others in naked beauty. Those who are looking for Sappho--Each translator has thier strong poems and their weak ones, Barnstone, however, is strongest overall. His version of "To Anaktoria" is my favorite of all Sappho in translation.

The translation is marvelous: I read them all before in Spanish. And the Selection? Amazingly good ! Congratulations to the translator! It`s not an easy feat to translate Garcìa Lorca or Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz...eoither The Master: Quevedo...or Machado ( the name is ANTONIO, NOT ANTONIA ) The person who selected the poems is really knowing... If you want to read and enjoy the very best of Spanish written sonets...This Book is a Poetic "Bible " Don`t miss it !

The Art of Worldly Wisdom is one of my favorite books. It was written in the 1600s and contains 300 maxims in paragraph form. All you have to do is to open the book to the back where you will find a listing of the maxims. For instance, #192 is "A peaceful life is a long life." and #148 is "Have the art of conversation." Then turn to the appropriate page for your lesson in full. It's a tiny book that will amaze you with the amount of brilliance it contains. It's a book that will fit in your pocket and help you through life. I hope you'll love it as much I do.

THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM. Adapted from the translation by JOSEPH JACOBS. Unabridged. Shambhala Pocket Classics. 283 pp. Boston & London : Shambhala, 1993. ISBN 0-87773-921-8 (pbk.)

Balthasar Gracian's 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' is a collection of 300 brief maxims, most of which take up only a single page or less of this small book. His maxims teach us the art of getting along in the world.

Gracian must have been a singularly wise person. Those who are lucky enough to discover his book before making all the major mistakes of their lives should count themselves very lucky, because what the author sets out to do is to teach us, in a very clear and easy-to-understand way, how to avoid all those dumb mistakes.

You can open this book at any page and, if you are young, find out what you most definitely shouldn't (or should) be doing. And if you are old you will probably find yourself reading about all the things in your life that you shouldn't (or should) have done, and that you wouldn't (or would) have done if there had been someone as wise as Gracian around to advise you - and _if_ you had followed their advice.

Here, chosen at random, are a few of his maxims : 83. Allow yourself some forgiveable sin. 141. Do not listen to yourself. 250. When to turn the conversation around. 252. Neither belong entirely to yourself nor entirely to others. 3. Keep matters for a time in suspense. 36. Before acting or refraining, weigh your luck. 69. Do not give way to every common impulse. 195. Put up with fools. 262. Be able to forget.

Each of these maxims is fully developed and explained in the text which follows the maxim, and you are going to be amazed that anyone could have figured out so much. A handy complete list of the maxims is given on pages 261-81.

Physically, the Shambhala Pocket Classic Edition of 'The Art of Worldly Wisdom' is an attractive book, and at just 7.5 cm by 11.5 cm is small enough to fit into the smallest purse or pocket. It is well-printed, in two colors, on excellent paper, is sturdily bound in stiff decorative wraps, and is even stitched.

So if you think it's time you got your act straightened out, let Gracian show you how. You'd be hard put to find better counsel than his.

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A very small book--literally the size of a credit card, and only half an inch thick--of three-hundred maxims, covering practically all of the wisdom one needs to go through life. Each maxim covering less than a tiny page, often only half. (The size of THIS PARTICULAR EDITION is NOT meant to make one feel cheated of what one paid for. It IS meant to be COMPACT, to carry in the pocket or bag, for frequent reference, in brief quiet moments. There are hardcover versions around.)

Originally written in Spanish in 1637 by a Jesuit scholar, it has been translated into eight European languages. This one translated by another scholar and literary critic named Joseph Jacobs, who also collected folklores (including English and Celtic fairy tales, as well as the fables of Aesop).
This particular translation is known to preserve Gracian's epigrammatic style, including his word plays and puns, albeit later updated where necessary due to being unclear and/or dated in grammar and syntax, and revised in comparison with other known English versions.

In contrast to Machiavelli, who put CRUDE REALITY into words, Gracian is more on the side of a little IDEALISM and NOBILITY in living one's life. Which is not to say he aims for ASPHYXIA; much is given to living a happy life, part of which is giving oneself a break and a breather.

[NEGATIVE] A few maxims are of limited use for its obviousness--in essence, "sometimes go left, sometimes go right". (Uhm, aren't those ALL of the very choices from which one must pick? And doesn't EVERYBODY ALREADY know that.) The wisdom of everything else in the book in nonetheless undiminished.

The brevity (not concise; some maxims are translated rather long-windedly) of the maxims does not mean that they are to be read as many in one stretch. After all, the benefits only start when wisdom is absorbed and lived out. Best to read through a dozen at most at a time; re-read and re-read, giving each time to sink into the heart and mind; only then move onto the next dozen or two.

Quite ENLIGHTENING. Worth keeping one copy of. Or perhaps two--a hardcover edition, too, in one's library, work desk, coffee table or reception room . . . for anyone who might walk in or anyone being made to wait, and who could use the time literally wisely.
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This volume, in it's summary of the ancient Haggadah (Jewish myth creation, invovling Lilith, 7 heavens, etc.), Early Kabbalah, New Testament Apocrypha, and Gnostic scriptures, was intriguing to say the least.

Mr. Barnstone clearly asserts in the introduction that if history were altered in favor of these scriptures, that we would have these in our Holy Bible today.

However, what I found were some shocking similarities between Roman Catholicism and Pagan traditions. In the same way Solstice became Christmas, and Easter into a celebration of Christ's ressurection, religions that were forced into the Church under various popes and rulers had no option but to submit 'holy scripture' of their own.

Some of these truths went on to form extra-biblical views found in Roman Catholicism and other denominations. 7 heavens, Prayers to Martyred Saints, Purgatory, it's not in the Bible folks! It's in "The Other Bible"!

I reccomend this book to advanced thinkers and armchair theologians who want a better understanding of early christian influences. But do be careful of Mr. Barnstone's radical assumptions.

This is a wonderfull compendium of Gnostic, Hermetic and non-cannonical Judeo-Christian scriptures. You will find selected chapters and passages from a ubiquitous array of ancient texts influenced by many faiths and philosophies.

Among other things, this book introduces you to:

-- The origin of the fallen angels and levels of heaven and hell (Book of Enoch et al) later depicted by Dante and Blake.

-- The Nag Hammadi Gonstic texts

-- The Hermetical texts

-- The Manachean texts

-- The Mystical texts of the Dead Sea scrolls and Kaballah

-- Strange Gnostic Christian beliefs from Simon Magus to the almost Satanic Cainites.

-- The complete 'Q'-sourced Gospel of Thomas

-- The Infancy Gospels of Christ

One of my favorite selections, The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, reminded me of the Jerome Bixby SF Classic "It's a Good Life." with little Jesus terrorizing the town (wishing bad people away).

You will clearly understand after reading this book just how hetergeneous the early Christian communities really were in their beliefs. In fact, the earliest beliefs seem more Gonstic in flavor than they later came to be with the establishment of the Roman Church.

I would highly recommend this book to both the scholar and faithfull alike. For the former, it offers a look at the hisotry and development of Western religion and philsophy through original source material, while to the latter, the origin of some widely held notions, particularly about Heven and Hell, can be found here.

With the diverse Gnostic texts, added to new christian writings of the disciples, gives good reason to call it The Other Bible. These scriptures should be selected and added to the King James. Wonder if someone could put the Sophia of Jesus Christ in there as well. The Gnostic content is a gold mine of knowledge lost down thru the ages because of the worldwide accepted King James version. Read along with "The Nag Hammadi Library". Some of the same books are in this book, but I found them easier to understand reading from the Other Bible. This book is easy reading even with missing pieces. Those who have been awakened by the Logos to Gnosis should diligently study these scrolls. The scrolls were not touched by human hands for 2,000 years. Original insight to early Kabbalah, treasure of prophecies, accounts of how the world was called into existence, and events preceding the creation.