The following haiku is from Bashō’s famous haibun (blended prose-verse travelogue) Narrow Road to the Deep North, which describes his 1689 journey into the less populated wilderness of northern Japan in search of famous utamakaru or sites that inspired great poetry. At one point he visits the ruins of the…
The following haiku is from Bashō’s famous haibun (blended prose-verse travelogue) Narrow Road to the Deep North, which describes his 1689 journey into the less populated wilderness of northern Japan in search of famous utamakaru or sites that inspired great poetry. At one point he visits a mountain temple high…
My translation of “The Song of Moquihuitzin” from the Aztec codex Songs of Mexico (Cantares Mexicanos) will be published in issue 19 of BorderSenses, a great literary journal.
The cover image for my book of translated Mesoamerican verse, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry, out this fall from Lamar University Press. A shout-out to artist Noé Vela for this fantastic painting.
Here are a few illustrations from my collection of Mesoamerican verse Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry, forthcoming from Lamar University Press. All images © 2013 Nicol Bowles.
This poem originally appeared in Along the River. Near Dwaravati, on the Beach He faces me in some glittering moonlit mindscape —I almost feel the sea breeze and the still-warm sand— His ageless eyes full of power that almost glows. “Hello, Nara,” he murmurs. “Here we always meet, Near the…
For Jan Seale Beyond Mirando City There are places where the stricken world tapers to an end: Thin spots, bereft of voice or birds, From which obscure vehicles in endless caravan siphon Essential mysteries or dark green dreams. I’d not stop at such blighted corners of creation, But life draws…
Sappho was an incredible poet of the ancient world, but most of her poetry has been lost to us. In 2004, Michael Gronewald and Robert Daniel announced that a papyrus in the University of Cologne contained poems of Sappho. This text, recovered from a sort of papier-mâché used for Egyptian mummy masks,…
At the behest of a friend, here’s my version of Bécquer’s famous poem: Eternal Love The face of the sun may darken forever, The oceans run dry in an instant of fire. The axis spinning our planet may shatter Like so much brittle crystal. Yes, all of that may happen! At…
I’m presently working on translations of Mayan and Aztec poetry (for a volume tentatively titled Flower, Song, Dance), and several people have asked me about my process. As a result, I’ve decided to break down the translation of a relatively short Nahuatl poem from Cantares Mexicanos, one of the few…
