Starting September 5, 2013, and running through Halloween, The Monitor will be printing a nine-part series entitled “Creature Feature.” Published each Thursday, this column will feature my retellings of creepy tales of ghosts, ghouls and cucuys from deep South Texas, with illustrations by a variety of local artists. The first…
Beginning September 5 and continuing through Halloween, The Monitor will be running my nine-part series Creature Feature. Published each Thursday, this series will feature creepy tales of ghosts, ghouls and cucuys from deep south Texas, each accompanied by the illustrations of artists like Xavier Garza. I will be posting links…
Yesterday, Lamar University Press released my latest book, Flower, Song, Dance: Aztec and Mayan Poetry. I’d like to express my gratitude to the many people who helped get this project off the ground, especially my editor, Jerry Craven, and the two artists whose work makes the book an even richer…
At last! A translation of Aztec poetry done not by an historian, a linguist or an anthropologist, but by a poet. In this volume, David Bowles captures the heart and the soul of the Nahua poets, and carries them safely across the narrow bridge swinging far above the perilous waters…
Here you stand, Our eagle, our jaguar— A jewel for this family, Quetzal-feather, Beloved son. May you never take this union lightly. Already it has become Your world, Your nature— Your life is wholly different now. No longer will your heart Be burdened by vice, For you have abandoned The…
Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar and poet in the 16th century who emphasized mono no aware or “the pathos of things” in his literary philosophy, insisting on the role of empathy in life and in composition. The following waka is one of his most famous poems: it was usurped…
On September 21, 2013 I will be the featured artist for Flower, Song, Dance: A Poetic and Musical Celebration of Aztec Culture. I will read from my newly published translations of Aztec verse against the backdrop of Dr. Carl Seale’s Toxcatl, a ballet inspired by the celebration of the fifth…
My article entitled “Translating ‘An Otomi Song of Spring’” has been accepted for publication by Translation Review, the journal of the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA), housed at The University of Texas at Dallas. ALTA is the only organization in the United States dedicated wholly to literary translation, and it…
Japanese poet Bashō composed the following haiku in the winter of 1694, just four days before his death. At the time, despite his illness, he had embarked on another trek across the Japanese countryside. Ill on a journey— Through desolate fields my dreams Aimlessly wander. —Translated by David Bowles, July…
Japanese poet Bashō composed the following haiku in the summer of 1688 and later published it in Backpack Notes. The “octopus traps” are jars that would be lowered into the water by fishermen in the afternoon and then raised the next morning. The creatures that had slipped inside what appeared…
