The Longman Anthology of World Literature, Volume A: The Ancient World Book

VOLUME A: THE ANCIENT WORLD

THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST

The Babylonian Theogony (c. 2^nd millennium B.C.E), (trans. W. G. Lambert)

A Memphite Theology (c. 2500 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)

Genesis: Chapters 1-11 (1^st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Robert Alter)

Translations: Genesis

POETRY OF LOVE AND DEVOTION (c. 3^rd to 2^nd millennium B.C.E.)

Last night, as I, the queen, was shining bright (trans. S. N. Kramer)

Egyptian Love Songs (trans. W. K. Simpson)

Distracting is the foliage of my pasture (trans. W. K. Simpson)

I sail downstream in the ferry by the pull of the current (trans. W. K. Simpson)

The voice of the turtledove speaks out (trans. W. K. Simpson)

I embrace her, and her arms open wide (trans. W. K. Simpson)

One, the lady love without a duplicate (trans. W. K. Simpson)

How well the lady knows to cast the noose (trans. W. K. Simpson)

Why need you hold converse with your heart? (trans. W. K. Simpson)

I passed by her house in the dark (trans. W. K. Simpson)

THE SONG OF SONGS (1^st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Jerusalem Bible translation)

THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH (c. 1200 B.C.E.), (trans. Maureen Gallery Kovacs)

Perspectives: Death and Immortality

The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld (late 2^nd millennium B.C.E), (trans. Stephanie Dalley)

from The Book of the Dead (2^nd millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)

Letters to the Dead (2^nd to 1^st millennium B.C.E.), (trans. Gardiner and Sethe)

Kabti-Ilani-Marduk: Erra and Ishum (8^th century B.C.E.), (trans. David Damrosch)

Crosscurrents

THE BOOK OF JOB (6^th century B.C.E.), (trans. Revised Standard Version)

Resonances

from The Babylonian Theodicy

Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Psalm 102 “Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come unto thee!”

Perspectives: Strangers in a Strange Land

The Story of Sinuhe (c. 1925 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)

The Two Brothers (c. 1200 B.C.E.), (trans. Miriam Lichtheim)

The Joseph Story (1^st millennium B.C.E.), (New International Version) Genesis 37-50

The Book of Ruth (c. late 6^th century B.C.E.), (New International Version)

Crosscurrents

CLASSICAL GREECE

HOMER (8^th century B.C.E.)

from The Iliad (trans. Richmond Lattimore)

Book 1: The Wrath of Achilles

Book 18: Achilles’ Sheild

Book 22: The Death of Hektor

Book 24: Achilles and Priam

Resonance

Filip Visnjic: The Death of Kraljevic Marko (trans. Foley)

The Odyssey (trans. Robert Fagles)

Book 1. Athena Inspires the Prince

Book 2. Telemachus Sets Sail

Book 3. King Nestor Remembers

Book 4. The King and Queen of Sparta

Book 5. Odysseus - Nymph and Shipwreck

Book 6. The Princess and the Stranger

Book 7. Phaeacia's Halls and Gardens

Book 8. A Day for Songs and Contests

Book 9. In the One-Eyed Giant's Cave

Book 10. The Bewitching Queen of Aeaea

Book 11. The Kingdom of the Dead

Book 12. The Cattle of the Sun

Book 13. Ithaca at Last

Book 14. The Loyal Swineherd

Book 15. The Prince Sets Sail for Home

Book 16. Father and Son

Book 17. Stranger at the Gates

Book 18. The Beggar-King of Ithaca

Book 19. Penelope and Her Guest

Book 20. Portents Gather

Book 21. Odysseus Strings His Bow

Book 22. Slaughter in the Hall

Book 23. The Great Rooted Bed

Book 24. Peace

Resonances

Franz Kafka: The Silence of the Sirens (trans. Muir and Muir)

George Seferis: Upon a Foreign Verse (trans. Keeley and Sherrard)

Derek Walcott: from Omeros

ARCHAIC LYRIC POETRY

ARKHILOKHOS (7^th century B.C.E)

Encounter in a Meadow (trans. M. L. West)

The Fox and the Hedgehog (trans. M. L. West)

Elegies (trans. M. L. West)

SAPPHO (early 7^th century B.C.E)

Rich-throned immortal Aphrodite (trans. M. L. West)

Come, goddess (trans. M. L. West)

Some think a fleet (trans. M. L. West)

He looks to me to be in heaven (trans. M. L. West)

Love shakes my heart (trans. M. L. West)

Honestly, I wish I were dead (trans. M. L. West)

…she worshipped you (trans. M. L. West)

Like a sweet-apple (trans. M. L. West)

The doorman's feet (trans. M. L. West)

Resonance

Alejandra Pizarnik: Poem, Lovers, Recognition, Meaning of His Absence, Dawn, Falling (trans. Graziano et. al.)

ALKAIOS (7^th — 6^th century B.C.E)

And fluttered Argive Helen's heart (trans. M. L. West)

They tell that Priam and his sons (trans. M. L. West)

The high hall is agleam (trans. M. L. West)

I can't make out the lie of the winds (trans. M. L. West)

PINDAR (518-438 B.C.E.)

First Olympian Ode (trans. Frank J. Nisetich)

Resonances

John Keats: Ode on a Grecian Urn

Rainer Maria Rilke: Archaic Torso of Apollo (trans. Arndt)

AESCHYLUS (525-456 B.C.E.).

Agamemnon (trans. Richmond Lattimore)

Resonance

W. B. Yeats: Leda and the Swan

SOPHOCLES (496-406 B.C.E.)

Oedipus the King (trans. David Grene)

Antigone (trans. R. Fagles)

Resonance

Aristotle: from Poetics (trans. Dorsch)

Perspectives: Tyranny and Democracy

Solon (c. 640-558 B.C.E.)

Our state will never fail (trans. M. L. West)

The commons I have granted (trans. M. L. West)

Those aims for which I called the public meeting (trans. M. L. West)

Thucydides (c. 460-400 B.C.E.)

from The Peloponnesian War (trans. Steven Lattimore)

Plato (c. 429-347 B.C.E)

Apology (trans. Jowett)

EURIPIDES (c. 480-405 B.C.E.)

The Medea (trans. Rex Warner)

Resonance

Friedrich Nietzsche: from The Birth of Tragedy (trans. Fadiman)

Crosscurrents

ARISTOPHANES (445-c.380 B.C.E.)

Lysistrata (trans. J. Henderson)

EARLY SOUTH ASIA

THE MAHABHARATA OF VYASA (last centuries B.C.E.-early centuries C.E.)

Book 2: The Friendly Dice Game (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

Book 5: The Temptation of Karna (trans. J.A.B. van Buitenen)

Book 6: from The Bhagavad Gita (trans. Barbara Stoler Miller)

Translations: The Bhagavad Gita

Resonances

Kautilya: from The Treatise on Power (trans. Kangle)

Asoka: from Inscriptions (trans. Nikam and McKeon)

THE RAMAYANA OF VALMIKI (last centuries B.C.E.)

Book 2: The Exile of Rama (trans. Sheldon Pollock)

Book 3: The Abduction of Sita (trans. Sheldon Pollock)

Book 6: The Death of Ravana and The Fire Ordeal of Sita (trans. Goldman et al.)

Resonances

from A Public Address, 1989: The Birthplace of God Cannot Be Moved (trans. Busch)

Daya Pawar, et al.: We Are Not Your Monkeys (trans. Patwardban)

Perspectives: What is “Literature”?

The Ramayana of Valmiki

The Invention of Poetry (trans. Robert P. Goldman)

Rajashekhara (early 900s)

from Inquiry into Literature (trans. Sheldon Pollock)

Anandavardhana (mid-800s)

from Light on Suggestion (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls et al.)

Crosscurrents

LOVE IN A COURTLY LANGAUGE

THE TAMIL ANTHOLOGIES (2^nd -3^rd century)

Orampokiyar: What Her Girl Friend Said (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

Anonymous: What Her Girl Friend Said to Him (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

Kapliar: What She Said (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

Uruttiran: What She Said to Her Girl Friend (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

Maturaittamilkkutta Katuvan Mallanar: What the Servants Said to Him (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

Vanmanipputi: What She Said to Her Girl Friend (trans. A. K. Ramanujan)

THE SEVEN HUNDRED SONGS OF HALA (2nd-3rd century)

At night, cheeks blushed (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

After a quarrel (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

His form (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

While the bhikshu (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

Though he’s wronged me (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

Tight lads in fields (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

He finds the missionary position (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

When she bends to touch (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

As though she’d glimpsed (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

Those men (trans. A. K. Mehrotra)

THE HUNDRED POEMS OF AMARU (7^th century)

She is the child, but I the one of timid heart (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

You will return in an hour? (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

As he came to bed the knot fell open of itself (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

At first our bodies knew a perfect oneness (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

Your palm erases from your cheek the painted ornament (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

They lay upon the bed each turned aside (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

If you are angry with me, you of lotus eyes (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

You listened not to words of friends (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

At day’s end as the darkness crept apace (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

Held her (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

Lush clouds in (trans. Daniel H. H. Ingalls)

KALIDASA (4^th -5^th century)

Shakuntala and the Ring of Recollection (trans. B. S. Miller)

Resonances

Kuntaka: from The Life-force of Literary Beauty (trans. Krishnamoorthy)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: On Shakuntala (trans. Pollock)

Rabindranath Tagore: from Shakuntala: Its Inner Meaning

CHINA: THE CLASSICAL TRADITION

THE BOOK OF SONGS (1000-600 B.C.E.)

1 The Ospreys Cry (trans. Arthur Waley)

5 Locusts (trans. Arthur Waley)

20 Plop Fall the Plums (trans. Arthur Waley)

23 In the Wilds is a Dead Doe (trans. Arthur Waley)

Resonances

In the wilds there is a dead deer (trans. Bernard Karlgren)

Lies a dead deer on younder plain (trans. Ezra Pound)

26 Cypress Boar (trans. Arthur Waley)

41 Northern Wind (trans. Arthur Waley)

45 Of Fair Girls (trans. Arthur Waley)

26 Cypress Boat (trans. Arthur Waley)

76 I Beg You, Zhong (trans. Arthur Waley)

82 The Lady Says (trans. Arthur Waley)

94 Out in the Bushlands a Creeper Grows (trans. Arthur Waley)

Resonances

In the open grounds there is the creeping grass (trans. Bernhard Karlgren)

Mid the bind-grass on the plain (trans. Ezra Pound)

96 The Cock Has Crowed (trans. Arthur Waley)

113 Big Rat (trans. Arthur Waley)

119 Tall Pear Tree (trans. Arthur Waley)

123 Tall is the Pear Tree (trans. Arthur Waley)

143 Moon Rising (trans. Arthur Waley)

154 The Seventh Month (trans. Arthur Waley)

166 May Heaven Guard (trans. Arthur Waley)

Resonances

Heaven protects and secures you (trans. Bernhard Karlgren)

Heaven conserve thy course in quietness (trans. Ezra Pound)

189 The Beck (trans. Arthur Waley)

234 What Plant is not Faded? (trans. Arthur Waley)

238 Oak Clumps (trans. Arthur Waley)

245 Birth to the People (trans. Arthur Waley)

283 So They Appeared (trans. Arthur Waley)

Resonances

Confucius: from The Analects (trans. S. Leys)

Wei Hong: from Preface to The Book of Songs (trans. Yu)

CONFUCIUS (551-479 B.C.E.)

from The Analects (trans. S. Leys)

Perspectives: Daoism and its Ways

from Dao De Jing (trans. D. C. Lau)

from Zhuangzi (trans. Burton Watson)

Liezi (4th century C.E.): from The Book of Liezi (trans. A.C. Graham)

Xi Kang (223-262 C.E.): from Letter to Shan Tao (trans. J. Hightower)

Liu Yiqing (403-444 C.E.): from A New Account of the Tales of the World (trans. R. B. Mather)

Crosscurrents

ROME AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

VIRGIL (70-19 B.C.E.)

Aeneid (trans. Robert Fitzgerald)

from Book 1: A Fateful Haven

from Book 2: How They Took the City

Book 4: The Passion of the Queen

from Book 6: The World Below

from Book 8: Evander

from Book 12: The Death of Turnus

Resonances

Horace: from Odes: 1.24: Why should our grief for a man so loved (trans. West)

Macrobius: from Saturnalia (trans. Davies)

OVID (43 B.C.E.-18 C.E.)

Metamorphoses (trans. A. D. Melville)

Books 1 and 2

Phaethon

Book 3

Tiresias

Narcissus and Echo

Book 6

Arachne

Book 8

The Minotaur

Daedalus and Icarus

Book 10

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus' Song: Ganymede, Hyacinth, Pygmalion

Book 11

The Death of Orpheus

Book 15

Pythagoras

Perspectives: The Culture of Rome and the Beginnings of Christianity

Catullus (84-54 B.C.E.)

3 “Cry out lamenting, Venuses and Cupids” (trans. Charles Martin)

5 “Lesbia, let us live only for loving” (trans. Charles Martin)

13 “You will dine well with me, my dear Fabullus” (trans. Charles Martin)

51 “To me that man seems like a god in heaven” (trans. Charles Martin)

76 “If any pleasure can come to a man through recalling” (trans. Charles Martin)

107 “If ever something which someone with no expectation” (trans. Charles Martin)

Translations: Catullus’ Poem 85

Horace (65-8 B.C.E.)

Satire 1.8 “Once I was wood from a worthless old fig tree” (trans. R. W. Hopper)

Satire 1.5 “Leaving the big city behind I found lodgings at Aricia” (trans. N. Rudd)

Ode 1.25 “The young bloods are not so eager now” (trans. David West)

Ode 1.9 “Soracte standing white and deep” (trans. David West)

Ode 2.13 “Not only did he plant you on an unholy day” (trans. David West)

Ode 2.14 “Ah how quickly, Postumus, Postumus” (trans. David West)

Petronius (d. 65 C.E.)

from Satyricon (trans. J.P. Sullivan)

Paul (c. 10- c. 67 C.E.)

from Epistle to the Romans (trans. New Revised Standard Version)

Luke (fl. 80-110 C.E.)

from The Gospel According to Luke (trans. New Revised Standard Version)

from The Acts of the Apostles (trans. New Revised Standard Version)

Roman Responses to Early Christianity

Suetonius (c. 70 - after 122 C.E.): from The Twelve Caesars

Tacitus (c. 56 - after 118 C.E.): from The Annals of Imperial Rome

Pliny the Younger (c. 60 - c. 112 C.E.): Letter to Emperor Trajan

Trajan (Emperor of Rome, 98-117 C.E.): Response to Pliny (trans. B. Radice)

Crosscurrents

AUGUSTINE (354-430 C.E.)

Confessions (trans. Henry Chadwick)

Book 1

Invocation and infancy

Grammar school

Book 2

The Pear-tree

Book 3

Student at Carthage

Book 5

Arrival in Rome

Book 8

Ponticianus

Pick up and read

Book 9

Monica's death

Book 11

Time, eternity, and memory

Resonances

Michel de Montaigne: from Essays (trans. Frame)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: from The Confessions (trans. Cohen)

Bibliography

Credits

Index