The Be-Loving Imaginer

By Martin Bidney

This podcast is focused on 3 core values: a “be-loving” intercultural imagination, a love for wordsong as the calling of a modern “troubadour,” & the desire to compose in verse a modern-day script... more

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FAQs about The Be-Loving Imaginer:

How many episodes does The Be-Loving Imaginer have?

The podcast currently has 56 episodes available.

The Be-Loving Imaginer episodes:

November 13, 2024 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 56 - Religion & Passion: Year in a Monastery
The Be-Loving Imaginer: Episode 56
Religion & Passion: Year in a Monastery
The book Religion and Passion in Russia and France offers three psychologically pioneering story poems: Gabri-iliad by Alexander Pushkin (1821), Mythical Book by Alfred de Vigny (1858), and Year in a Monastery by Alexei Apukhtin (1883). In the Romanticist tradition of modern scripture writing, each poet treats a scriptural theme from a modern, rebellious perspective. Pushkin’s poem about Angel Gabriel begins by describing Gabriel’s surprise when, in the course of the famous Annunciation, he discovers he’s in love with Mary himself. Vigny creates a new Bible-type figure, Éloa, who’s a female angel interested in saving Satan. Apukhtin writes a poem in the form of a diary, the journal of a long-time party-goer who seeks a complete refashioning of his life by becoming a novice in a monastery. All three visionaries are trying, I think, to refashion the fruit-eating fable from Genesis 3 in a way that will give passion a chance to defend its cause against the regime of an overbearing lordly superego. I’ll read the opening entries from the Apukhtin journal, plus a brief party-going poem for context.
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16min
June 03, 2024 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 - Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsis
The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub Life
Synopsis
Pub life in medieval Muslim Persia? But didn’t the Qur’an prohibit wine? Actually, the meaning of the relevant Quranic passages was long and widely debated. Result: Persian pub culture was intense and celebrated with distinguished verse. In this book I focus on a “divan,” a very big “collection,” of pub verse called Eastern Roses, and I show how to position that major work in a cultural context of pub life.
J. W. von Goethe, Germany’s greatest poet, was having “writer’s block” in 1814 when suddenly appeared the first-ever translation of Hafeez’ fourteenth-century “divan” into any European language appeared in German. Goethe loved it and by 1819 he had written his reply: West-East Divan, where he plays the role of a Persian medieval pub poet while yet remaining in some ways also “Western” and modern. This epoch-making marvel caught on in Germany and powerfully stimulated the rich production of several poets, whom I’ll also sample.
l. Prelude: Friedrich Rückert dedicates his eastern rose-bouquet (1822) with a poem to Goethe. I’ll “reply” to this by citing a very Hafeezian poem by Goethe, plus comments.
2. “I’m tempted by the lute” is a duet between Rückert and Hafeez/Hammer.
3. Another verse dialogue between them in a sharply different mood.
4. Dialogue between Rückert and an American Anacreontic (pub poet).
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30min
June 03, 2024 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 54 - Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsis
The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub Life
Synopsis
Pub life in medieval Muslim Persia? But didn’t the Qur’an prohibit wine? Actually, the meaning of the relevant Quranic passages was long and widely debated. Result: Persian pub culture was intense and celebrated with distinguished verse. In this book I focus on a “divan,” a very big “collection,” of pub verse called Eastern Roses, and I show how to position that major work in a cultural context of pub life.
J. W. von Goethe, Germany’s greatest poet, was having “writer’s block” in 1814 when suddenly appeared the first-ever translation of Hafeez’ fourteenth-century “divan” into any European language appeared in German. Goethe loved it and by 1819 he had written his reply: West-East Divan, where he plays the role of a Persian medieval pub poet while yet remaining in some ways also “Western” and modern. This epoch-making marvel caught on in Germany and powerfully stimulated the rich production of several poets, whom I’ll also sample.
l. Prelude: Friedrich Rückert dedicates his eastern rose-bouquet (1822) with a poem to Goethe. I’ll “reply” to this by citing a very Hafeezian poem by Goethe, plus comments.
2. “I’m tempted by the lute” is a duet between Rückert and Hafeez/Hammer.
3. Another verse dialogue between them in a sharply different mood.
4. Dialogue between Rückert and an American Anacreontic (pub poet).
...more
27min
May 02, 2024 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 53 - Travel Wordsongs in Egypt, Greece, Turkey
Synopsis Episode #53 Egypt, Greece, Turkey
Three Historical Legacy Tours
At various times I’ve taken “antiquarian” tours of the countries named above, one tour per country, each of our journeys lasting two weeks. The sponsoring firm, “Travel with the Experts,” always offered both American and native-land lecturers on each nation’s history and culture.
I wrote a poem a day: 3 x 2 weeks = 6 weeks = 42 days = 42 poems, all written in Greco-Roman poetic meters (stanza patterns, rhythm schemes) widely used in ancient times. I was doing historical research into olden types of wordsong while learning about the histories of ancient cultures. No snapshots, only snapjots.
Egypt poem 2 The Art of Living (Necropolis at Sakkara)
Egypt poem 4 To Akhenaten
Greece 22 Eyes, or the Fortunes of Hellenism
Greece 25 A View of the Acropolis
Turkey 32 Derinkuyu Underground
Turksy 39 Domabahçe Palace
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22min
October 31, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 52 - Eighty Odes in Keats-like Modes
I celebrated my 80th birthday by writing 80 odes in reply to the 6 masterly ones by Keats and in response, quite often, to his other poetry as well, mainly sonnets.

“46. Ode to My Neighborhood” is a kind of jubilant “happy birthday” response to the pleasures of a peaceful, friendly life; it’s in in the Mr. Rogers style.

“Reply 37: ‘Ode on Autumn,’ by John Keats,” shows you the paradigm I adopt for my neo-Keatsian tribute book.

“37. Ode on Art-writing” introduces an extended venture into “ecphrastic” writing, where I interpret the many works of visual art produced during her younger years by my daughter Sarah.

“36. Ode on Dance Posters” offers a vivid reminiscence that brought to mind many remembered moments of exercise-excitement available to children awhirl.

“Reply 36: ‘The Lover’s Dervish Whirl’” is an original rhapsody aroused by the dance-writing.
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23min
October 18, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 51- Hybridized Sonnets
The YouTube, like the book, has two parts, each with two subsections.

1a. Poems 12. Id and 22. Bulbous show how to hybridize a traditional sonnet with a new number of beats per line and a new kind of rhythm unit (e.g., three-syllable instead of two).

1b. Poems 13. Dividends and 25. Haste show how hybridized sonnets can be used to write “replies” to random passages in the
Qur’an, which I love as part of the Judaeo-Christo-Islamic Tradition.

2a.
Poems 49. Sophia and 46. Sea-Farewell show hybridized sonnet forms applied to the work of Russian poet Vladimir Solovyov (1953-1900), a mystical wordsong maker as well as notable theologian. Each poem is an interview or con-verse-ation where I “reply” to the poet I am translating.

2b.
Poems 90. Flint and 96. Taverner show me interviewing Hafeez, the great medieval Persian pub poet, as Solovyov presented him in his Russian re-writing, newly rendered here in English with my “reply.”
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19min
September 17, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 50 - "When Two Friends Meet"
Synopsis for Episode #50 "WhenTwo Friends Meet"
When Two Friends Meet – it was my friend Shahid Alam who suggested the title of our book. Our story, told in poetry and calligraphic art, is that of the mutual friendship we’ve enjoyed for over thirteen years. What has steadily deepened our friendship is the collaboration, the working-together, in which thought and feeling have flourished.
Collaboration helped awaken our productivity in art by the shared outlook we have continually renewed by reciprocal visits from 2010 to 2018 and by e-mail correspondence and the exchange of art-presents during this time. In our different but convergent ways we seek a unifying awareness through visual and aural imaginings.
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24min
September 15, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 49 - K.D. Balmont "Sonnets of Sun, Honey, & Moon"
Here I “interview” a poet I’ve been reading and researching for decades. Poet K. D. Balmont, a guiding light and major force in the Russian Symbolist movement, offered an encyclopedic view of his intercultural, nature-mystical development in a climactic book of 255 lyrical treasures: Sonnets of Sun, Honey, and Moon: A Song of Worlds (1917). I’ve translated these into verbal artworks in English by keeping his intricate patterns of subtle, firm rhythm and elegant rhyme.

But – what may surprise you – I also offer 255 “reply” poems of my own in Balmontian form. In the total book – 510 achievements of wordsong craft – you’ll hear my dialogue with a creator whose personality motivated endlessly new experiences of global travel and nature observations made with devoted precision, all embodied in lyrical beauty. It is the self-portrait of a spiritual master in dialogue with a younger poet who regards him as friend and mentor in thought and art.
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17min
April 11, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer Episode 48 – Passover Seder Hymn
Episode 48 – Passover Seder Hymn

         My favorite thing about the Jewish
Passover ceremony, or seder, is the After-Dinner Hymns. And my favorite one to
sing is “Ki Lo Ya-eh.” I’ll translate the first verse:

         TO HIM IT IS FITTING, TO HIM IT IS DUE,
         Mighty, supreme in His majesty.
         Legions may rightfully sing to You,
         Sovran alone will You ever be.
         TO HIM IT IS FITTING, TO HIM IT IS DUE.

The 8 verses contain alternate near-synonyms for “legions,”
such as “attendants,” “the faithful,” or “disciples,” and the nouns are in the
order of the Hebrew alphabet. This device helps give the hymn a coherent
structure for Hebrew readers.

         For musicians like me, what triumphs
most will always be the music! It is a treat to share it with you.
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7min
April 11, 2023 Martin Bidney - The Beloving Imaginer - Episode 47 – Wordsongs for Music
Episode 47 – Wordsongs for Music
Celebrating my 80th birthday (April 21, 1923) with this book, I couldn’t wait to share wordsongs with you, and I put the first one right on the back cover. It’s called “March 1, 2022.”
I’ll give you a few more samples of my 100 singable poems. They’re in all sorts of rhythms and rhyme schemes and stanza patterns.
(1) 49 Newspaper p. 15
(2) 23 Kintsugi p. 18
(3) 29 Hafeez p. 19
(4) 89 Linoleum p. 21
(5) 11 Come p. 23
(6) 53 Heaven p. 85
(7) 69 Beloving p. 105
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15min

FAQs about The Be-Loving Imaginer:

How many episodes does The Be-Loving Imaginer have?

The podcast currently has 56 episodes available.