“The Golls’ love poems of thier thirty year love affair, the “10,000 dawns” are little known even by those who know of the Goll’s poetry. But given these translations, this book might just take on new importance by seeing these as “mystical ecology” poems. They are about the act of loving within the context of the natural world, which in the end is about the only thing of real importance. The book is part of White Pine’s “Companions for the Journey” series, described as “designed to be carried along on your journey thorugh life.” And there couldn’t have been a better fit for this thought provoking series than this book.”

—Joe Napora - Asheville Poetry Review

"Unlike the Surrealists, Goll loved a real woman, who was an unchanging presence in his life. He and his wife Claire formed a turbulent love-world of which he wrote continuously. And it may be that Goll will be remembered finally for these poems. Their simple visionary grace, the ease with which they build a spiritual moment out of commonplace, almost conventional images, make the love poems unique in modern poetry." - Paul Zweig

"There are very few things like this in modern literature: Yvan and Claire Golls' Ten Thousand Dawns--Dix Mille Aubes--the very title of which has always brought tears to my eyes." -Kenneth Rexroth

The essence of Zen is contained in the phrases and poems presented here, along with an introduction by Gary Snyder. The sayings range from profound to mystifying to comical and appear in vivid, poetic English. First compiled in 15th century Japan, the book contains Zen phrases and verses taken from Zen classics, sutras, and the poetry of China.

“For those who wish to delve more deeply into the long tradition of Ken poetry in Korea, White Pine Press has released Because of the Rain, the latest installemnt of their beautiful “Companions for the Journey” series. The collection spans over a thousand years, offering a distillation of zen doctrine and practise, glimpsed through a Korean lens. These are wonderful pure nuggets of Zen insight.”

—Dan Zigmond - Tricycle

Two thousand years have passed since the first of these poems were composed. A new introduction prefaces this expanded edition of Schelling’s remarkable translations.

Sample Poems

Her quick eyes

and animated mouth

unsettle me.

So, of course,

her lifted breasts,

full lips—

soft fruits of desire.

But why should a

single wisp of hair,

stroked beneath her

navel like

some unforgettable

line of poetry,

reduce me to such

anguish?

Bhartrihari

Friend,

the lamp flame was flaring

into night’s darkest

corners. My lover,

an adept in the flavors

of love,

made slow

very slow love

because the bed

grates like a talkative

neighbor.

Anonymous

No one visible up ahead,

no one approaches

from behind.

Not a footprint on the road.

Am I alone?

This much is clear—

the path the ancient

poets opened

is choked with brush,

and I’ve long since left

the public thoroughfare.

Dharmakirti

Once again

you mount this playful

woman’s breasts and touch

the tender region

along her thighs.

Closing one arm around you

she draws forth

your pleasure

with measured strokes

of her hand.

Some other lifetime

what austerities

did you practice, O sitar,

to win this reward?

Vacaspati

Between her little

son and her

husband

the lady sits—

      milk leaks

      from one breast

      teased by a fingernail

      the other one

      stiffens

Hala

Water and scraps of meat

she has trained

the dog carefully—

It receives her lover

but bays loudly

when her husband appears

on the road                                                           

anonymous           

“Refined, intense, wise, stiring, immediate, subtile, all the charmed qualities gather in Dropping the Bow. These translations are precious jewels. Like the erotic moods they investigate, these versions shimmer and startle with a palpable desire to be heard, and a mystical sense of impermanence. This is a transmission of a vital, extraordinary tradition.”

                                                            —Anne Waldman

“These dear ancients deserve a translator like Andrew Schelling: with gentle authority, he helps them raise their hands to bid time halt for a moment in our heads. Their brief translucent poems demonstrate the co-existence of past, present, and future in the perennial vortices of human emotion, they are gists of the heart.”

                                                                        -Anselm Hollo

”Access to such unfamiliar texts - retaining freshness and grace - is only cause to thank Andrew Schelling for his generous effort. He opens us to these frank inspiriting poems without stint. Make us look forward to more such revelations. As Visvanatha says: ‘Language...baring...light’.”

                                                            -Cid Corman

Good poetry contains the kind of knowledge we search for, the kind that resonates in the heart as well as the mind. The poems in this anthology are timeless, spanning two millenniums, and drawn from many different centuries and cultures. The voices range from ancient China, Japan, and India to contemporary America and Europe. What they share is a living spirit that can help us change the way we see ourselves, and the world.

As Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer says in his poem about the painter Vermeer, “ I am not empty, I am open”.  A good poem may open a door or window we didn’t know existed.  

In this age of the twenty-four/seven media assault from all directions good poetry has the capacity to slow us down, make us listen and pay attention. For the reader this book gathers unique selection of direct and accessible poetry that can awaken and transform. For the poet it is perhaps a source book from which to draw inspiration. The great Japanese poet Basho referred to his practice as Kado, the way of poetry. He thought of poetry as a way of life and source of enlightenment. He also suggested that as poets we ”don’t follow in the footsteps of the masters but seek what they sought.”

Contributors include Han-shan, Du Fu, Li Po, Lu Yu, Ryokan, Issa, Buson, Ikkyu, Chiyo-ni, Nanao Sakaki, Ghalib, Lai Ded, Rumi, Antonio Machado,Juan Ramon Jimenez, Miguel Hernandez, Luis Cernuda, Tomas Transtromer, Olav Hauge, Rolf Jacobsen, Francis Ponge, Charles Baudelaire, Rainier Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, Marjorie Agosin, Roberto Juarroz, Denise Levertov, Jane Hirshfield, Phillip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Lew Welch, David Budbill, Louis Jenkins, Cid Corman, Michael McClure, Peter Blue Cloud, Maurice Kenny, Joseph Bruchac, Sam Hamill, Joy Harjo, James Wright, John Brandi, Joseph Stroud, Ilya Kaminsky, Robert Bly, Chase Twichell, and many others.

Dennis Maloney is the founding editor/publisher of White Pine Press. He is also a poet and translator. His works of translation include The House in the Sand by Pablo Neruda,  The Landscape of Castile by Antonio Machado and The Poet and the Sea by Juan Ramon Jimenez. His most recent volume of poetry is Just Enough. 

How do Bengali women love in times of social transition and political upheaval?  These poems look at how Bengali women tell their truths of the heart and mind through the prism of their struggles for equality, opportunity, and recognition in a changing society.  The poems follow a subtle trajectory through the stages of love-First Love, Marriage, Separation, Aging and Death, and the ultimate Supreme, Universal Love of which romantic love is an imperfect reflection--not unlike the stages of life through the human psyche moves, from beginning to end and back to the starting anew of the cycle.  

This collection includes work from a range of Bengali women poets, the eldest ones born in the women's quarters of purdah-observing, high-caste families in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.and the youngest poet included is Taslima Nasrin.

“With this volume, Chaves makes an outstanding contribution to the books that present classical Chinese poetry in both accurate and enjoyable English translation.” -Choice

“This re-issue of Chaves’ Pilgrim of the Clouds is welcome news. In its handy size, it is the perfect companion for trekkers who feel like taking a break in a tea-house or cafe, or, for those bound to the classroom, an affordable additional text that students in an undergraduate course will find both entertainig and instructive.”

—Ihor Pidhany - Education About Asia

Sarah E. Truman had a life-long affinity with China and Guanyin – the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Compassion. She believed that Guanyin actually lived in China (although her common sense and just about everyone she knew told her that Guanyin was NOT a historical figure or physical being.) She decided to visit China and see what Guanyin was (or was not) and to find out how Guanyin's millions of devotees have endured the great political, economic and social upheavals of the last century: Has Buddhism survived in China? Does the philosophy and spirit of a great intellectual and spiritual tradition still influence a country gone mad with the turmoil of war, revolution and now the spoils of so-called economic miracles?

Through two years of countrywide travels and unexpected encounters - including Sanlin the statue maker, Mrs. Wu and her Kungfu master son, the grotesque luminosity of Yes Bar, and finally the wisdom of a Chan monk - Sarah E. Truman found what she was looking for.

The book is a collection of stories that portray China as a country where life is rooted in raw, street level survival, and where Guanyin can only be experienced after all concepts, preconceived notions, and spiritual illusions are abandoned. 

“Sarah Truman's closely observed jaunt in China and Tibet offers some priceless scenes, from trying to hilarious. How lucky she is to be watched over in her travels by the gentle, lively Bodhisattva of Compassion Kwan Yin.”

            Sandy Boucher, author of Discovering Kwan Yin: Buddhist Goddess of Compassion

“The essence of life is here — the mundane actions of the everyday; the sublimity if love distilled into the greif of parting; and two gently but inextricably linked by the ambiguity of “pat pat” and the simutaneous reaching actions of the sounds and a hand. The seeming simplicity, repetition and rhythm of these poems will simmer away in the reader’s unconscious like a gentle breeze, and whip up like a sudden gust of wind to shake the willow branches of your heart.”

—Richard Donovan - Japan Visitor

“Ruy-Sanchez’s works of fiction are always amazing: adventure, poetry and intelligence in a new geometry of words...  His writing has nerve and agility, his intelligence is sharp without being cruel, his mood is sympathetic without complicity.” 

-Octavio Paz

“In the books by Ruy-Sanchez we find again the erotic conviction that allows us to read with all the skin. The erotic, in his narratives is not a subject or a phrase, it is the clay of what they are made. In his novels every experience, trivial or extraordinary, breaths through the erotic.”

-Alberto Manguel

“Beautiful and disturbing..., in his books a man slowly explores a woman’s universe of mistery and poetry.”

-Le Monde

“To name the air is to make it visible. Ruy Sanchez invented not only novels but a new way of reading, the way of poetic lightening stroke.”

-Severo Sarduy

has nerve and aruel, his mood is sy

“The Uuswept Path is a great collection of haiku and writings about haiku by contemporary American poets. It's the richest stew of haiku meditations since R.H. Blythe's pioneering work, revealing the haiku as a living vital form. Editors John Brandi & Dennis Maloney have done a brilliant job of gathering writers who exhibit a range of attitudes & approaches toward the haiku. Unlike other haiku related writings in English, this collection does not emphasize the formal elements of the tradition; rather the emphasis is on the haiku as a mode of perception. The reader is encouraged, i.e. inspired, to use it to purify their poetry & their minds. Brandi's brilliant essay sets the tone, evoking the spirit of Basho & Issa in ways related to our own times and establishing freedom and egolessness as haiku's most fertile ground. His work alone is worth the price of admission, as is the selection included by the late Cid Corman. We see familiar writers like Michael McClure, Diane DiPrima, Sonia Sanchez and Patricia Donegan in new ways, and writers new to me like Christopher Herrold and Penny Harter also shine. This book is a real treat for lovers of poetry. It's illuminating & entertaining--a sweeping success. “

—Michael Castro

"Traveler, there is no road; you make your path as you
walk"

While others suggest taking the road less traveled,
Antonio Machado suggests that we each make our own
road. In this series of brief poems Machado utilizes
traditional Spanish verse forms to create a wide
ranging collection of reflections and philosophical
insights in the form of aphorisms. Poems that have the
immediacy of epigrams or Japanese haiku.
Antonio Machado (1875-1939) is one of the greatest
poets of 20th century Spain. He along with Juan Ramon
Jimenez and Miguel de Unamuno formed the generation of
1898, which ushered in a new Spanish poetics.
Mary Berg is a professor of Spanish at at Harvard
University and the translator of many volumes
including River of Sorrows by Libertad Demitropulos.
Dennis Maloney is a poet and translator. His
translations include the work of Pablo Neruda and Juan
Ramon Jimenez.

"Like fresh wine in a beautiful old bottle, Mary Berg
and Dennis Maloney have, in There Is No Road, given us
a new score for the songs of this legend of 20th
century Spanish literature. Reminiscent of the 13th
century Persian mystic Hafiz, and with a kind of
alchemical duende, Machado, in these Sappho-like
fragments, takes us down not only the road less
traveled, but the road not seen, where transformation
and transfiguration comes not from self-made millions,
but from changing "love into theology." "
-Thomas Rain Crowe - translator of Drunk on the
Wine of the Beloved: 100 Poems of Hafiz

"This collection of poems by Antonio Machado opens the
door to a world of rich simplicity, rare intentions,
and great beauty. So very spiritual, so very real."
-Joan Halifax, Abbess, Upaya Zen Center