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- Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 54 - Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub LifeSynopsis
The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 55 Reimagining Medieval Persian Pub Life
SynopsisPub 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).27 min - Martin Bidney - The Be-Loving Imaginer Episode 53 - Travel Wordsongs in Egypt, Greece, Turkey
Synopsis Episode #53 Egypt, Greece, Turkey
Three Historical Legacy ToursAt 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 AkhenatenGreece 22 Eyes, or the Fortunes of HellenismGreece 25 A View of the AcropolisTurkey 32 Derinkuyu UndergroundTurksy 39 Domabahçe Palace22 min - 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.
23 min - 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.”19 min - 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.24 min
- 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.17 min - 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 tosing 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 theorder of the Hebrew alphabet. This device helps give the hymn a coherentstructure for Hebrew readers.For musicians like me, what triumphs
most will always be the music! It is a treat to share it with you.7 min - 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. 10515 min - MartinBidney - The Beloving Imaginer - Episode 46 Poe in Russia, “The Bells”
The Beloving Imaginer Episode 46
Poe in Russia, “The Bells”
You’ve heard, maybe too often, about what may be “lost in translation,” but my reading tonight is designed to show that translation may also offer huge dividends, windfall profits. That’s what happened when Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont made a Russian version of Edgar Allan Poe’s experimental poem, “The Bells,” a rendering which I, in turn, translate for you from the Russian.
Poe’s inspired design, which so attracted Balmont, was to write a four-part narrative lyric showing how the four stages in the life of a human being may be correlated with the kinds of bells that are heard in the four eras of our life.
Childhood = jingle bells. Adolescence and adulthood = wedding bells. Continuing life with its conflicts and crises = fire alarm bells. Final goodbye = funeral bells.
Balmont’s exciting expansion and extensive elaboration of the Poe idea excited Sergei Rachmaninoff, who used it as the libretto for a grand vocal symphony, an orchestral cantata with solo singers and chorus. It is one of the most memorable works of one of the world’s musical masters. Bruce Borton, conductor of the Binghamton University-Community Chorus (where I sang tenor for 15 years), which performed the Rachmaninoff Bells in Russian, asked me to do a form-faithful and accurate translation of the text to be included in the piano reduction score he was preparing for Musica Russica, a firm specializing in choral works by Russian composers. I complied gladly and my singable English rendering, included in this published book, can be conveniently used by any chorus performing Bells
12 min - Martin Bidney - The Be-loving Imaginer - Episode 45 Samples from Three Books
The Be-loving Imaginer Episode 45
Samples from Three Books
It’s a joy to offer samples from three of my recent books of poems.
From More Four! Four Beats Four Lines, Four Stanzas: 330 Four Wordsongs I offer 4 samples: (18) Jeer, (26) Nose, (103) Psalming, and (201) Sheheḥyananu (You Who Have Kept Us Alive). They contribute to the theme of being a Jewish American.
From Asclepiadic Explorer: 99 Poems and 4 Songs I offer two kinds of asclepiads from ancient verse stanza forms. (1) Melody 1 exhibits the “Third Asclepiadic” form, as it was called, and (2) Melody 2 exhibits the “Fourth Asclepiadic.” They are so intensely musical, let’s not allow this form go so extinct!
From No Lovelier Melody Ever Was Known: A Month of 96 Poems in Amphibrachic Tetrameter Catalectic. An amphibrach is la-LA-la. A tetrameter means we’ll four of them in each line. A catalexis means a line shortened by a syllable, so instead of la-LA-la, la-LA-la, la-LA-la la-LA-la we’ll have a-ONE-and, a-TWO-and, a-THREE-and, a-FOUR. I’ll offer the first 4 poems in the book to get you going and whet your appetite.
17 min
About The Be-Loving Imaginer
From the publisher's feed
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…
scripture or testament as Wordsworth, Blake, or Whitman tried to do. I’m offering “workshops” & “interviews” in talk-show style to dramatize my daily verse-creating interaction with mentors for people who want to sample the fruits of a poetic life which is a pioneering venture in both melodious form & intercultural, inter-religious content. My mission is to illustrate my 3 main approaches to life-and-art.