The Longman Anthology of World Literature: The Medieval Era Book

VOLUME B: THE MEDIEVAL ERA

MEDIEVAL CHINA

WOMEN IN EARLY CHINA

LIU XIANG (c. 78-8 B.C.E.)

Memoirs of Women (trans. Nancy Gibbs)

The Mother of Mencius

BAN ZHAO (c. 45-120)

Lessons for Women (trans. Nancy Lee Swann)

YUAN CAI (c. 1140-1195)

from Precepts for Social Life (trans. Patricia Ebrey)

VOICES OF WOMEN

Here's a Willow Bough (trans. J. R. Allen)

Midnight Songs (trans. Jeanne Larsen)

A Peacock Southeast Flew (trans. Anne Birrell)

Ballad of Mulan (trans. Arhur Waley)

YAUN ZHEN (c. 779-831)

The Story of Yingying (trans. Arthur Waley)

Resonance

Wang Shifu: from The Story of the Western Wing

TAO QIAN (c. 365-427)

Biography of the Gentleman of the Five Willows (trans. A.R. Davis)

Peach Blossom Spring (trans. J.R. Hightower)

Resonance

Wang Wei (701-761): Song of Peach Blossom Spring (trans. Yu)

The Return (trans. J.R. Hightower)

Returning to the Farm to Dwell (trans. J.R. Hightower)

From On Reading the Seas and Mountains Classic (trans. J.R. Hightower)

The Double Ninth, in Retirement (trans. J.R. Hightower)

In the Sixth Month of 408, Fire (trans. J.R. Hightower)

Begging for Food (trans. J.R. Hightower)

Finding Fault with My Sons (trans. J.R. Hightower)

Twenty Poems after Drinking Wine (trans. J.R. Hightower)

HAN SHAN (c. 600-800)

Men ask the way to Cold Mountain (trans. Gary Snyder)

Spring water in the green creek is clear (trans. Gary Snyder)

When men see Han-shan (trans. Gary Snyder)

I climb the road to Cold Mountain (trans. Burton Watson)

Wonderful, this road to Cold Mountain (trans. Burton Watson)

Cold cliffs, more beautiful the deeper you enter (trans. Burton Watson)

Men these days search for a way through the clouds (trans. Burton Watson)

Today I sat before the cliff (trans. Burton Watson)

Have I a body or have I none (trans. Burton Watson)

My mind is like the autumn moon (trans. Burton Watson)

Do you have the poems of Han-shan in your house? (trans. Burton Watson)

Resonance

Lu-qui Yin: from Preface to the poems of Han-shan (trans. Snyder)

POETRY OF THE TANG DYNASTY

WANG WEI (701-761)

from The Wang River Collection (trans. Pauline Yu)

Preface

1 Meng Wall Cove

5 Deer Enclosure

8 Sophora Path

11 Lake Yi

17 Bamboo Lodge

Bird Call Valley (trans. Pauline Yu)

Farewell (trans. Pauline Yu)

Farewell to Yuan the Second on His Mission to Anxi (trans. Pauline Yu)

Visiting the Temple of Gathered Fragrance (trans. Pauline Yu)

Zhongnan Retreat (trans. Pauline Yu)

In Response to Vice-Magistrate Zhang (trans. Pauline Yu)

LI BO (701-62)

Drinking Alone by Moon (trans. Vikram Seth)

Fighting South of the Ramparts (trans. Arthur Waley)

The Road to Shu is Hard (trans. Vikram Seth)

Bring in the Wine (trans. Vikram Seth)

The Jewel Stairs' Grievance (trans. Ezra Pound)

The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter (trans. Ezra Pound)

Listening to a Monk from Shu Playing the Lute (trans. Vikram Seth)

Farewell to a Friend (trans. Pauline Yu)

In the Quiet Night (trans. Vikram Seth)

Sitting Alone by Jingting Mountain (trans. Stephen Owen)

Question and Answer in the Mountains (trans. Vikram Seth)

DU FU (712-770)

Ballad of the Army Carts (trans. Vikram Seth)

Moonlit Night (trans. Vikram Seth)

Spring Prospect (trans. Pauline Yu)

Traveling at Night (trans. Pauline Yu)

Autumn Meditations (trans. A.C. Graham)

Yangzi and Han (trans. A.C. Graham)

BO JUYI (772-846)

Song of Unending Sorrow (trans. Witter Bynner)

Perspectives: What is “Literature”?

Cao Pi (187-226)

from A Discourse on Literature (trans. Stephen Owen)

Lu Ji (261-302)

from Rhymeprose on Literature (trans. Achilles Fang)

Liu Xie

from The Literary Mind (trans. Stephen Owen)

Wang Changling (c. 690- c. 756)

from A Discussion of Literature and Meaning (trans. Richard Bodman)

Sikong Tu (837-908)

from The Twenty-four Classes of Poetry (trans. Pauline Yu and Stephen Owen)

Crosscurrents

JAPAN

MAN’ÔSHÛ, COLLECTION OF TEN THOUSAND LEAVES (c. 702 — c. 785)

Emperor Yûryaku (r. 456-479) Your basket, with your lovely basket (trans. T. Duthie)

Emperor Jômei (r. 629-641) Climbing Kagu Mountain and looking upon the land

Princess Nukata (c. 638-active until 690's) On spring and autumn (trans. E. Cranston)

Kakinomoro No Hitomaro (active 689-700) On passing the ruined capital of ômi (trans. T. Duthrie)

Kakinomoro No Hitomaro(active 689-700) On leaving his wife as he set out from Iwami (trans. N. G. Shinkokai)

Kakinomoro No Hitomaro(active 689-700) After the death of his wife (trans. Ian Levy)

Yamabe No Akahito (fl. 724-736) On Mount Fuji (trans. Anne Commons)

Yamanoue No Okura (c. 660-c. 733) Of longing for his children (trans. Edwin Cranston)

MURASAKI SHIKIBU (c. 978 — c. 1014)

from The Tale of Genji (trans. Edward Seidensticker)

from Chapter 1: The Paulownia Court

from Chapter 2: The Broom Tree

from Chapter 5: Lavender

from Chapter 7: An Autumn Excursion

from Chapter 9: Heartvine

from Chapter 10: The Sacred Tree

from Chapter 12: Suma

from Chapter 13: Akashi

from Chapter 25: Fireflies

from Chapter 34: New Herbs (Part 1)

from Chapter 35: New Herbs (Part 2)

from Chapter 36: The Oak Tree

from Chapter 40: The Rites

from Chapter 41: The Wizard

Resonances

Murasaki Shikibu: from Diary (trans. Bowring)

Daughter of Sugawara No Takasue: from Sarashina Diary (trans. Arntzen)

Riverside Counselor's Stories: The Woman Who Preferred Insects (trans. Seidensticker)

Perspectives: Courtly Women

Ono No Komachi (fl. c. 850)

While watching (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

Did he appear (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

When my desire (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

The seaweed gatherer's weary feet (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

The autumn night (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

I thought to pick (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

I know it must be this way (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

My longing for you (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

Though I go to him constantly (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

How invisibly (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

This body (trans. Jane Hirschfield with Aratani)

Mitchitsuna’s Mother (936-995)

from The KagerM Diary (trans. Sonja Arntzen)

Sei Shônagon (c. 965- c. 1017)

from The Pillowbook (trans. Ivan Morris)

Crosscurrents

TALES OF HEIKE (14^th century)

Bells of Gion Monastery (trans. B. Watson)

Gio (trans. B. Watson)

The Death of Kiyomori (trans. B. Watson)

The Death of Lord Kiso (trans. B. Watson)

The Death of Atsumori (trans. B. Watson)

Death of Noritsune (trans. B. Watson)

The Drowning of the Emperor (trans. B. Watson)

The Six Paths of Existence (trans. B. Watson)

The Death of the Imperial Lady (trans. B. Watson)

Noh: Drama of Ghosts, Memories, and Salvation (trans. B. Watson)

ZEAMI (c. 1363- c. 1443)

Atsumori, a Tale of Heike Play (trans. Royall Tyler)

Pining Wind (trans. Royall Tyler)

Resonance

Kyôgen, Comic Interludes: Delicious Poison (trans. Kominz)

CLASSICAL ARABIC AND ISLAMIC LITERATURES

PRE-ISLAMIC POETRY

IMRU’ AL-QAYS (d. c. 550)

Mu’allaqah “Stop, let us weep at the memory of a loved one” (trans. Alan Jones)

AL-KHANSA’ (c. 575-646)

A mote in your eye, dust blown on the wind? (trans. Charles Greville Tuetey)

Elegy for Ritha Sakhr “In the evening remembrance keeps me awake” (trans. Alan Jones)

THE BRIGAND POETS — AL SA’ALIK (trans. Alan Jones)

Urwah ibn al-Ward, Do not be so free with your blame of me

Ta'abbata Sharra, Come, who will convey to the young men

Ta'abbata Sharra, A piece of news has come to us

THE QUR’AN (trans. N.J. Dawood)

from Sura 41. Revelations Well Expounded

from Sura 79. The Soul Snatchers

from Sura 15. The Rocky Tract

from Sura 2. The Cow

from Sura 7. The Heights

Sura 1. The Opening

from Sura 4. Women

from Sura 5. The Table

from Sura 8. The Spoils

from Sura 12. Joseph

from Sura 16. The Bee

from Sura 18. The Cave

from Sura 19. Mary

from Sura 21. The Prophets

from Sura 24. Light

from Sura 28. The Story

from Sura 36. Ya Sin

from Sura 48. Victory

Sura 71. Noah

Sura 87. The Most High

Sura 93. Daylight

Sura 96. Clots of Blood

Sura 110. Help

Resonance

Ibn Sa’ad: from The Prophet and his Disciples (trans. Haq and Ghazanfar)

HAFIZ (c. 1317 -1389)

The House of Hope (trans. A. J. Arberry)

Zephyr (trans. J. H. Hindley)

A Mad Heart (trans. A. J. Arberry)

Cup in Hand (trans. J. Payne)

Last Night I Dreamed (trans. Gertrude Bell)

Harvest (trans. Richard le Gallienne)

All My Pleasure (trans. A. J. Arberry)

Wild Deer (trans. A. J. Arberry)

Resonance

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Blissful Yearning (trans. Brown)

Perspectives: Poetry, Wine and Love

Abu Nuwas (755 — c. 815)

Splendid young blades, like lamps in the darkness (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

My body is racked with sickness, worn out by exhaustion (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

Praise wine in its sweetness (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

O censor, I satisfied the Imam, he was content (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

Bringing the cup of oblivion for sadness (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

What's between me and the censurers (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

His friend called him Sammaja for his beauty (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

One possessed with a rosy cheek (trans. Arthur Wormhoudt)

Resonance

Hasab al-Shaik Ja'far: from Descent of Abu Nuwas (trans. Der Hovanessian)

Ibn al-Rumi (836-889)

Say to whomever finds fault with the poem of his panegyrist (trans. Peter Blum, after Gregor Schoeler)

I have been deprived of all the comforts of life (trans. Peter Blum, after Gregor Schoeler)

I thought of you the day my journeys (trans. Robert McKinney)

Sweet sleep has been barred from my eyes (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Al-Mutanabbi (915-955)

On Hearing in Egypt that his Death had been Reported (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Satire on Kafur Composed… before the Poet's Departure (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Panegyric to Abdud al-Daula and his sons (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Crosscurrents

THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS (9^th — 14^th century)

Prologue: The Story of King Shahrayar and Shahrazad (trans. Husain Haddawy)

His Vizier's Daughter

The Tale of the Ox and the Donkey

The Tale of the Merchant and His Wife

The Tale of the Porter and the Young Girls (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

Tale of the Second Kalander

The Tale of Zubaidah, the First of the Girls

from The Tale of Sympathy the Learned (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

from An Adventure of the Poet Abu Nuwas (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

The Flowering Terrace of Wit and the Garden of Gallantry (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

The Youth and His Master

The Wonderful Bag

Al-Rashid Judges of Love

from The End of Ja'far and the Barmakids (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

Conclusion (trans. Powys Mathers after J.C. Mardrus)

Resonance

from The History of al-Tabari (trans. Bosworth)

Translations: One Thousand and One Nights

JALA AL-DIN RUMI (1207-1273)

What excuses have you to offer, my heart, for so many shortcomings? (trans. A.J. Arberry)

The king has come, the king has come, adorn your palace-hall (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Have you ever seen any lover who was satiated with this passion? (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Three days it is now since my fair one has become changed (trans. A.J. Arberry)

The month of December has departed, and January too (trans. A.J. Arberry)

We have become drunk, and our heart has departed (trans. A.J. Arberry)

We are foes to ourselves, and friends to him who slays us (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Not for a single moment do I let hold of you (trans. A.J. Arberry)

Who'll take us home, now we've drunk ourselves blind? (trans. Amin Banani)

Perspectives: Asceticism, Sufism, and Wisdom

Al-Hallaj (857-922)

I have a dear friend whom I visit in solitary places (trans. D. P. Brewster)

I continued to float on the sea of love (trans. M. M. Badawi)

Painful enough it is that I am ever calling out to You (trans. M. M. Badawi)

Your place in my heart is the whole of my heart (trans. M. M. Badawi)

You who blame me for my love of Him (trans. M. M. Badawi)

I swear to God, the sun has never risen or set (trans. M. M. Badawi)

Ah! I or You? These are two Gods (trans. Samah Salim)

Here am I, here am I, O my secret, O my trust! (trans. Samah Salim)

I am not I and I am not He; then who am I and who is He? (trans. Samah Salim)

Ibn ‘Arabi (1165-1240)

O domicile without rival, neither abandoned (trans. Gerald Elmore)

I am “The Reviver”-I speak not allusively (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Of knowers, am I not most avaricious (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Truly, my two Friends, I am a keeper of the Holy Law (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Time is passing by the days of my youth and vigor (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Bouts of dryness came upon me constantly from every side (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Law and Soundness make of him a heretic (trans. Gerald Elmore)

The time of my release, which I had always calculated (trans. Gerald Elmore)

To that which they don't understand all people do oppose (trans. Gerald Elmore)

The abode from which thou art absent is sad (trans. Gerald Elmore)

Farid al-Din al'Attar (c. 1119- c. 1190)

from The Conference of the Birds (trans. Afkhan Darbandi and Dick Davis)

Crosscurrents

FIRDAWSI (c. 940-1020)

Shah-nama: The Book of Kings (trans J.W. Clinton)

from The Tragedy of Sohràb and Rostàm (trans J.W. Clinton)

IBN BATTUTA (1304-1369)

from The Travels of Ibn Battuta (trans. Samuel Lee)

THE EPIC OF SON-JARA (trans. J.W. Johnson)

MEDIEVAL EUROPE

BEOWULF (c. 750-950), (trans. A. Sullivan and T. Murphy)

Resonances

from The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki (trans. Byock)

Jorge Luis Borges: Poem Written in the Copy of Beowulf (trans. Reid)

THE POEM OF THE CID (late 12th-early 13th century), (trans. W.S. Merwin)

Perspectives: Iberia, the Meeting of Three Worlds

Castilian Ballads and Traditional Songs (c. 11^th -14^th century)

Ballad of Juliana (trans. Edwin Honig)

Abenámar (trans. William M. Davis)

These mountains, mother (trans. James Duffy)

I will not pick verbena (trans. James Duffy)

Three moorish girls (trans. Angela Buxton)

Mozarabic Kharjas (10th-early 11th century)

As if you were a stranger (trans. Dronke)

Ah tell me, little sisters (trans. Dronke)

My lord Ibrahim (trans. Dronke)

I'll give you such love (trans. Dronke)

Take me out of this plight (trans. Dronke)

Mother, I shall not sleep (trans. William M. Davis)

Ibn Hazm (c. 994-1064)

from The Dove's Neckring (trans. James Monroe)

Ibn Rushd (Averroës), (1126-1198)

from The Decisive Treatise Determining the Nature of the Connection (trans. G.F. Hourani)

Between Religion and Philosophy (trans. G.F. Hourani)

Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240)

Gentle now, doves (trans. Michael Sells)

Solomon Ibn Gabirol (c. 1021- c. 1057)

She looked at me and her eyelids burned (trans. William M. Davis)

Behold the sun at evening (trans. Scheindlin)

The mind is flawed (trans. Scheindlin)

Winter wrote with the ink of its rain and showers (trans. Scheindlin)

Yehuda Ha-Levi (before 1075-1141)

Cups without wine are lowly (trans. William M. Davis)

Ofra does her laundry with my tears (trans. Raymond Scheindlin)

Once when I fondled him upon my thighs (trans. Scheindlin)

From time's beginning, You were love's abode (trans. Scheindlin)

Your breeze, Western shore, is perfumed (trans. Goldstein)

My heart is in the east (trans. Goldstein)

from The Book of the Khazars (trans. Hartwig Hirschfeld)

Ramón Lull (1232-1315)

from Blanquerna: The Book of the Lover and the Beloved (trans. E. Allison Peers)

Dom Dinis, King of Portugal (1261-1325)

Provençals right well may versify (trans. William M. Davis)

Of what are you dying, daughter? (trans. Fowler)

O blossoms of the verdant pine (trans. Fowler)

The lovely girl arose at earliest dawn (trans. Fowler)

Martin Codax (fl. mid-13th century)

Ah God, if only my love could know (trans. Dronke)

My beautiful sister, come hurry with me (trans. Fowler)

Oh waves that I've come to see (trans. Fowler)

Crosscurrents

MARIE DE FRANCE (mid-12th - early 13th century)

Lais (trans. Joan Ferrante and Robert Hanning)

Prologue

Bisclavret (The Werewolf)

Chevrefoil (The Honeysuckle)

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT (late 14th century), (trans. J.R.R. Tolkien)

ABELARD (c. 1079 - c. 1142) AND HELOISE (c. 1095 - c. 1163)

from The Letters of Abelard and Heloise (trans. Betty Radice)

Abelard: David’s Lament for Jonathan (trans. Helen Waddell)

Abelard and Heloise: from Yes and No (trans. Brian Tierney)

Resonance

Bernard of Clairvaux: Letters against Abelard (trans. James)

from THE PLAY OF ADAM (c. 1150)

Scene 1, Adam and Eve (trans. Richard Axton & John Stevens)

DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)

from La Vita Nuova (trans. Mark Musa)

The Divine Comedy (trans. Allen Mandelbaum)

Inferno

Purgatorio

Canto 1: Arrival at Mount Purgatory

Canto 2: The Ship of Souls

Canto 22: The Angel of Liberality

Canto 29: The Procession in the Earthly Paradise

Canto 30: Beatrice Appears

Paradiso

Canto 1: Ascent Toward the Heavens

Canto 3: The Souls Approach

Canto 31: The Celestial Rose

Canto 33: The Vision of God

Resonances

Dante’s Hell

Chaucer: from The Monk's Tale

Thomas Medwin and Percy Bysshe Shelley: from Ugolino

Amiri Baraka: from The System of Dante's Hell

Translations: Dante Alighieri

MARCO POLO (c. 1254-1324)

from The Book of Wonders (trans. W. Marsden)

Resonances

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Kubla Khan

Italo Calvino: from Invisible Cities (trans. Samuel Lee)

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400)

Canterbury Tales (trans. J.U. Nicolson)

The General Prologue

The Miller’s Prologue

The Miller’s Tale

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue

The Wife of Bath’s Tale

Bibliography

Credits

Index