The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books

By Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Chris Piuma

Suzanne and Chris talk about great books—but what does “great” even mean?... more

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FAQs about The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books:

How many episodes does The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books have?

The podcast currently has 104 episodes available.

The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books episodes:

October 10, 2023 71. Troilus and Criseyde.
Allas, of me, unto the worldes ende,
Shal neither been ywriten nor ysonge
No good word, for thise bokes wol me shende.
O, rolled shal I been on many a tonge;
Thurghout the world my belle shal be ronge;
And wommen most wol hate me of alle.
Allas, that swich a cas me sholde falle!
(Alas! Until the end of the world, no good word will be written or sung about
me, because these books will utterly shame me. Oh, I will be rolled on many a
tongue, throughout the world my bell will be rung — and women will hate me
most of all. Alas, that such a thing should happen to me!)
Geoffrey Chaucer’s narrative poem Troilus and Criseyde tells a love story
— if by “love” you mean romantic obsession, coercion, and worse — all set
during the Trojan War. Chris and Suzanne talk about how this book explores the
interiority of its characters, how it depicts independence and politics, and
how it explores the way narratives unfold within systems of tropes and
traditions.
Show Notes.
Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde (in the
original and in a
modernization).
Other works by Chaucer: The Canterbury
Tales; The
Riverside Chaucer (i.e., his complete works).
Our episode on the Iliad.
(The Spouter-Inn will in fact turn five years old in January.)
Boccaccio: Il Filostrato.
Our episodes on Paradiso, Consolation of
Philosophy, and the
Metamorphoses.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon and hang
out with us in a friendly discord.
...more
54min
September 19, 2023 70b. Bonus: Dick Davis on Translating Persian Poetry.
There’s a feeling, I think, in English poetry that you have to be original.
That feeling isn’t really there in Persian poetry until the very modern
period. Then it is. But before then, there’s a kind of sense that there’s this
vast treasury of possibilities in poetry which everybody has used—and you can
use them too.
Dick Davis is an award-winning poet and translator, famous for his
translations of medieval Persian poetry. He has translated Attar’s The
Conference of the Birds and Nezami’s Layli and Majnun (both covered on The
Spouter-Inn), as well as Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, and his most recent translation
is The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women.
He joins Chris and Suzanne to talk about reading and translating Persian
poetry, how his work in translation has influenced his own poetry, and the
specific challenges in translating Layli and Majnun.
Show Notes.
Dick Davis’s translations include Layli and Majnun,
The Conference of the Birds, and others listed
below.
Our episodes on Layli and Majnun and
Conference of the Birds.
Fakhraddin Gorgani: Vis and Ramin (trans. Dick
Davis).
The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women (trans.
Dick Davis): hardcover bilingual edition by
Mage and English-only paperback by
Penguin
Jahan Khatun.
Hafez.
Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz (trans. Dick Davis): originally
published by Mage, paperback reprint by Penguin,
bilingual edition by Mage.
Mughal empire.
Our bonus episodes with Emily Wilson
and Sassan Tabatabai.
Nezami: Khosrow and Shirin.
“Seek a Poet who your way do's bend, / And chuse an Author as you chuse a
Friend” (Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscomon, in An Essay on Translated
Verse).
Chapman’s Homer.
John Keats: On First Looking into Chapman's
Homer.
Nizami’s Khamsa.
On Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.
Ferdowsi: Shahnameh (trans. Dick Davis): magnificent hardcover in three
volumes, illustrated, published by Mage, paperback single volume by
Penguin.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon to help
us research and record the show, and you can hang out with us on a friendly
little Discord.
...more
41min
September 06, 2023 70. Layli and Majnun.
Her voice was sweet and liquid, like a stream
That lulls all other streams to sleep and dream;
Her eyes like doe’s eyes, whose dark gaze would make
A lion lie down dazed, and half awake.
She seemed an alphabet of loveliness,
Curved letters were the curling of each tress,
Straight letters were her stature, and her lips
Were like a letter formed as an ellipse,
And all the letters made her like that bowl
That shows the world as an enchanted whole.
The story of Layli and Majnun — sometimes written as Layla and Majnun —
was most famously recorded in a book-length poem by the twelfth-century
Persian poet Nezami Ganjavi. Chris and Suzanne consider what the poem has to
say about love, mental illness, and fan culture.
Show Notes.
Nezami Ganjavi: Layla and Majnun, trans. Dick
Davis. [Bookshop.]
Our episode on Conference of the Birds.
Maria Rosa Menocal: Shards of Love: Exile and the Origin of the
Lyric.
Our episode on Enkidu from The Epic of
Gilgamesh.
Raymond Roussel: Locus Solus.
Manuscript images of Layli and Majnun at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
1,
2,
3,
4,
5.
And images of Majnun at the Ka’aba with a door knocker:
1,
2.
Our episode on Blind Owl.
The Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892–1910.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit.
Next: Geoffrey Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde.
(Bookshop. Also a helpful online
modernized and annotated
version.)
You can support us through our network, Megaphonic, on
Patreon.
...more
1h
July 15, 2023 69b. Bonus: Mark Sundaram and Aven McMaster on Etymology.
Language is so personal and internal. It exists in your head. You can close
your eyes and plug your ears and not engage with the outside world at all, and
yet you still have language going on. So I think one of the things that
attracts people to [etymology] is, it’s discussing something that they
feel they have a part in.
Mark Sundaram is a medievalist
and linguist who specializes in the history of the English language. He’s the
co-host of the podcast The Endless Knot
and the main force behind the
Alliterative YouTube channel. Mark
has a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Toronto and teaches at
Laurentian University.
Aven McMaster is a Classicist
who studies Latin poetry and Roman social history. She is the co-host of the
podcast The Endless Knot Podcast and
does production work on the
Alliterative channel videos. Aven has
a PhD in Classics from the University of Toronto and taught at Thorneloe
University at Laurentian.
They join Chris and Suzanne to talk all about etymologies, dictionaries, and
etymological dictionaries. What pleasures are found in reading the dictionary?
Why are some people so compelled by etymologies? How do etymologies and puns
inform classical poetry?
Show Notes.
The Endless Knot on Twitter.
John Ayto: Dictionary of Word Origins.
The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology.
Paul Anthony Jones (Haggard Hawks on
Twitter): Why Is This A Question?
On Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary.
Ernest Weekley: The Romance of
Words.
Alliterative’s video on nation.
The etymology of feisty.
Ernest Klein: A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language.
Anatoly Liberman: Word Origins and How We Know
Them.
The Oxford Etymologist.
Calvert Watkins: The American Dictionary of Indo-European
Roots.
Support The Spouter-Inn and our network,
Megaphonic, if you can. Thanks!
...more
44min
July 01, 2023 69. The Etymologies.
The word “amicus” — meaning “friend” — comes from a derivation, as if it
were “animi custos”, or “guardian of the soul”. And this is well put! The term
for someone tormented by carnal desire is “amator turpitudinis”, a lover of
wickedness. But “friend”, “amicus”, is from the word “hamus”, a hook — in
other words, the chain of charity, since hooks hold on.
The Etymologies , by the seventh-century polymath and theologian Isidore
of Seville, is a massive medieval encyclopedia, with sections devoted to
topics from grammar to farming, mathematics to war. And throughout the book,
Isidore attempts to understand the world through etymology—that is, by poking
and prodding at words until they reveal their histories and the other words
that they’re made of. Chris and Suzanne revel in Isidore’s ear for the
materiality of language, as well as his encyclopedic impulse to gather and
organize everything.
Show Notes.
Isidore of Seville: The Etymologies.
[Bookshop.] [The text in
Latin.]
The only other book by Isidore available in English translation seems to be
On the Nature of Things.
Our episodes on the Hereford Mappa
Mundi, The
Aeneid, Beyond a
Boundary, Gertrude
Stein, and Georges
Perec.
Petrus Riga’s Aurora does not
seem to be available in English translation.
The Latin text of the opening quote:
> Amicus, per derivationem, quasi animi custos. Dictus autem proprie: amator
turpitudinis, quia amore torquetur libidinis: amicus ab hamo, id est, a catena
caritatis; unde et hami quod teneant.
Suzanne wrote about encyclopedism (and Moby-Dick, naturally) for LitHub.
The Glossa Ordinaria.
The First Grammatical
Treatise.
Virgilius Maro
Grammaticus.
Next: Nezami Ganjavi: Layla and Majnun.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn through our network,
Megaphonic if you can. Thank you!
...more
49min
June 08, 2023 68. The Consolation of Philosophy.
“Now I know,” she said, “that other, more serious cause of your sickness: you
have forgotten what you are. So I really understand why you are ill and how to
cure you. For because you are wandering, forgetful of your true self, you
grieve that you are an exile and stripped of your goods; since indeed you do
not know the goal and end of all things, you think that evil and wicked men
are fortunate and powerful; since indeed you have forgotten what sort of
governance the world is guided by, you think these fluctuations of fortune
uncontrolled. All these are quite enough to cause not merely sickness but even
death. But I thank the author of all health that you have not yet wholly lost
your true nature.”
The Consolation of Philosophy by the sixth-century Roman author Boethius
has a little of everything: poetry and prose, autobiography and philosophy;
bright and lively writing and… maybe some boring bits, especially in the last
two sections. But it was written by a man who found himself thrown in jail and
condemned to death; who can blame him for trying to use philosophy—or, a
dialogue with the personification of Philosophy herself—to make sense of his
life? Chris and Suzanne discuss how this complex poem intersects with a lot of
other literary works, and argue about the uneasy marriage of philosophy and
poetry.
Show Notes.
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy.
[Bookshop.]
Our episodes on The Symposium,
Augustine’s Confessions, The Book of
the City of Ladies,
Paradiso, and The Autobiography of
Malcolm X.
The Wikipedia page for The Consolation of
Philosophy
has a nice medieval depiction of Fortune’s
wheel.
Rainer Maria Rilke: Archaic Torso of Apollo. (The original German
text. See also
Mark Doty talking about this poem.)
Next: Isidore of Seville: The Etymologies.
[Bookshop.]
Support The Spouter-Inn and our network on
Patreon — it helps us make the show, and it
gives you access to our friendly Discord!
...more
59min
May 11, 2023 67. The Song of Songs.
I come to my garden, my sister, my bride;
I gather my myrrh with my spice,
I eat my honeycomb with my honey,
I drink my wine with my milk.
Eat, friends, drink,
And be drunk with love.
The Song of Songs is a work of lyric poetry which is notably and
undeniably erotic in focus. And yet it has also been a key religious text
within both Judaism and Christianity, and has been read and commented upon for
thousands of years within those contexts. Chris and Suzanne read this poetry
both within and without these traditions of interpretations — and also
luxuriate in its intensity (and spiciness).
Show Notes.
The Song of Songs is part of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible, and is
available in many
translations.
Chris was primarily looking at the Jewish Publication
Society translation;
Suzanne at the Revised Standard
Version.
Our episodes on Walt Whitman, the
allegorical Conference of the Birds,
and Times Square Red, Times Square
Blue.
Bernard of Clairvaux: Commentary on the Song of
Songs.
Alain of Lille’s commentary, Elucidatio in Cantica Canticorum, doesn’t seem to
be easily available in English, but here’s the
Latin.
Rupert of Deutz’s Commentaria in Cantica Canticorum
also doesn’t seem to have been translated into English.
Next: Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy.
...more
50min
April 02, 2023 66. Antigone.
are you mockers of me
you grabbing old men
are you laughers at me
though I’m not yet gone
O springs of the rivers of Thebes
O reaches of the plains of Thebes
bear me witness
no one sheds a tear for me
as I go to my strange new grave
no one knows what kind of laws they are that sentence me
nor what kind of tomb it is I go to
I’m a strange new kind of inbetween thing aren’t I
not at home with the dead nor with the living
Sophocles’s play Antigone asks many questions about our relationship to
the law, to the state, to our families, and to the dead. The new king in town,
Creon, wants his nephew Polynices’s body to go unburied, as he died an enemy
of the state. Polynices’s sister Antigone says she will bury the body herself,
because that is the right and necessary thing to do. Things escalate.
Chris and Suzanne revisit this work and its world—how it depicts the gods and
the dead, and how we might read the struggles of a king trying to rule and a
young woman trying to do right by her brother. They also explore two different
translations by the poet and classicist Anne Carson.
Show Notes.
Sophocles: Antigone.
[Bookshop.]
Anne Carson: Antigonick and its less fancy
edition.
Also by Anne Carson: Autobiography of Red;
Nox; Grief Lessons: Four Plays by
Euripides; and many more.
Elizabeth Wyckloff’s translation of Antigone.
Euripides: Hippolytus,
translated by Sean Gurd, recreates the Greek (lack of) punctuation.
Our episode on the Iliad.
And our episode on To the Lighthouse.
Walter Benjamin: The Task of the
Translator.
Will Aitken: Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo van Hove,
and the Art of Resistance.
Next: Song of Songs.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon. Thanks!
...more
55min
February 26, 2023 65. The Epic of Gilgamesh.
‘My friend, whom I loved so dear,
   who with me went through every danger,
my friend Enkidu, whom I loved so dear,
   who with me went through every danger:
‘the doom of mortals overtook him.
   Six days I wept for him and seven nights.
I did not surrender his body for burial,
   until a maggot dropped from his nostril.
‘Then I was afraid that I too would die,
   I grew fearful of death, and so wander the wild.
‘What became of my friend was too much to bear,
   so on a far road I wander the wild;
what became of my friend Enkidu was too much to bear,
   so on a far path I wander the wild.
‘How can I keep silent? How can I stay quiet?
   My friend, whom I loved, has turned to clay,
my friend Enkidu, whom I loved, has turned to clay.
   Shall I not be like him and also lie down,
never to rise again, through all eternity?’
The Epic of Gilgamesh is a very old poem. The Standard Babylonian version
of it was redacted over three thousand years ago by an editor and poet named
Sîn-lēqi-unninni, but much of the material he compiled was even older than
that. The poem describes Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, two-thirds divine and
one-third human, who is so superior to everyone else that the gods must create
a companion for him. That companion is Enkidu, a bestial man who must be
carefully brought into civilization. Their relationship — and the questions
that arise after the gods condemn Enkidu to an early death — are still
compelling several thousand years later. Chris and Suzanne explore this
fragmentary monument of ancient literature, and think about what choices a
translator (and a reader!) have to make when engaging with it.
Show Notes.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, as translated by Andrew
George, N.K. Sandars,
Sophus Helle, and David
Ferry. [Many others are available!]
Our episode on The Iliad.
On cuneiform writing.
In a very different context, Chris has talked about Gilgamesh on a podcast
before.
Michael Schmidt: Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem, an
accessible book-length overview of the poem.
Next: Sophocles: Antigone.
[Bookshop.]
And our 2023 reading list, if you want to read ahead! (Some books may change. We
are fickle.)
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon. Thanks!
...more
54min
February 12, 2023 64b. Bonus: Sassan Tabatabai on Blind Owl.
In classical narrative poetry, there’s these formulaic repetitions that come
up, right? And then we have these very weird formulaic repetitions that come
up in Blind Owl. And I think the function is completely the opposite in the
classical works and in this modern work. [In classical poetic narratives,
repetitions] keep the reader kind of grounded. It’s that same familiar
signpost that keeps you on the right track. When we get to Blind Owl, when we
get these very odd repetitions … it unhinges the reader, right? It makes you
feel like you’re in some weird dream and you can’t get up.
Sassan Tabatabai is a poet, translator, and scholar of Medieval Persian
literature. He is Master Lecturer in World Languages and Literatures and the
Core Curriculum, and Coordinator of the Persian Language Program at Boston
University. His translations of Persian poetry have appeared in numerous
journals, and he is the author of Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and His
Poetry, Sufi Haiku, and
Uzunburun: Poems. He is also the translator of the
novel Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat, published by
Penguin Classics. His forthcoming books, both scheduled for release in spring
2023 are Ferry to Malta: Poems and Translations, and a Persian translation of
the poetry of David Ferry.
He joins Suzanne and Chris to talk about the challenges in translating prose
and poetry, and to further explore the influences and the intricacies of Sadeq
Hedayat’s novel Blind Owl.
Show Notes.
Sassan Tabatabai on Twitter.
Sassan Tabatabai’s books and translations: Blind
Owl. Father of Persian Verse: Rudaki and His
Poetry. Sufi Haiku.
Uzunburun: Poems. Also some translations of
Rumi.
Our episodes on Blind Owl, The
Conference of the Birds, and
Frankenstein.
Support The Spouter-Inn on Patreon. Thank
you!
...more
38min

FAQs about The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books:

How many episodes does The Spouter-Inn; or, A Conversation with Great Books have?

The podcast currently has 104 episodes available.

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