Twenty-six items from Special Collections (Table of Contents)

Twenty-six items from Special Collections: Exhibits ‘A’–‘Z’

1
Exhibit ‘A’: Swahili. (Ahmad Nassir bin Juma Bhalo, “A bone is not cookable,” and “Though you toast the popcorn”)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections

          “Though you toast the popcorn, we are here under the potsherd.”

[posted Monday 4 January 2016]

2
Exhibit ‘B’: Finnish. (“Elk and Snake” [“Hirvi ja Käärme”], sung by Oute, collected by A.A. Borenius, 1877; and “The Great Pig” [“Iso Sika”], singer unknown, collected by A. Ahlqvist, 1854)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-b

          “Margaret’s mother was such. She would be the snake’s milker.”

[posted Thursday 7 January 2016]

3
Exhibit ‘C’: medieval Italian. (Guido Cavalcanti, Ballad [“Era in penser d'amor quand' i' trovai...”], late 13th century)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-c

          “A little spirit born of tears had come out through the wound.”

[posted Monday 11 January 2016]

4
Exhibit ‘D’: Mahārāṣṭri Prākṛt. (Specimens from the Gāthāsaptaśatī of Sātavāhana Hāla)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-d

          “Love dies if you can't get to see her or if you see her too much, also from the gossip of vile men. Or from no cause at all."

[posted Thursday 14 January 2016]

5
Exhibit ‘E’: Teleuts. (“Praise song of the buck-hare,” anonymous Siberian folksong)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-e

          “I got buck teeth.”

[posted Monday 18 January 2016]

6
Exhibit ‘F’: medieval Welsh. (“Eiry mynydd,” anonymous, 12th century, two versions and the original)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-f

          “I hope I shall not live to a hundred.”

[posted Thursday 21 January 2016]

7
Exhibit ‘G’: Polish. (Zbigniew Herbert, five prose poems, 1950s and 60s)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-g

          “The hen brings to mind certain poets.”

[posted Monday 25 January 2016]

8
Exhibit ‘H’: Kiriwina (Papua New Guinea). (Linda Thomas, “Fetching it back,” circa 1970)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-h

          “May my bulubwalata be blunt.”

[posted Thursday 28 January 2016]

9
Exhibit ‘I’: Japanese. (Masaoka Shiki, thirty-seven haiku, 1892–1902)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-i

          “A stray cat is shitting in my winter garden.”

[posted Monday 1 February 2016]

10
Exhibit ‘J’: medieval Icelandic. (Anonymous, excerpt from “Hávamál” [“The Sayings of the High One”], from The Poetic Edda, manuscript circa 1270 CE, stanzas 111–137)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-j

          “Those who hang around with the hides and skulk among the skins and hover among the cheese bags.”

[posted Thursday 4 February 2016]

11
Exhibit ‘K’: Somali. (Anonymous, [“Like a she-camel with a large bell…”])
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-k

          “My heat is great.”

[posted Monday 8 February 2016]

12
Exhibit ‘L’: Sumerian. (Anonymous, [“In those days, in those far-off days…”], circa 1800 BCE)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-l

          She said, "How long until I sit on a pure throne?” She said, "How long until I lie on a pure bed?”

[posted Thursday 11 February 2016]

13
Exhibit ‘M’: Urdu. (Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib, eighteen poems, nineteenth century)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-m

          “These high, religious longings, Ghalib! These vaporings!”

[posted Monday 15 February 2016]

14
Exhibit ‘N’: Serbian. (Vasko Popa, “Homage to the Lame Wolf,” 1975)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-n

          “Raise the stone from your heart and lay it on mine, lame wolf.”

[posted Thursday 18 February 2016]

15
Exhibit ‘O’: medieval Irish. (Anonymous, “The Deer's Cry,” eighth century)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-o

          “Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me.”

[posted Monday 22 February 2016]

16
Exhibit ‘P’: Occitan. (William VII, Count of Poitiers, IX Duke of Aquitaine, [“Farai un vers de dreyt nien”], circa 1105 CE)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-p

          “It came to me while I was sleeping on my horse.”

[posted Thursday 25 February 2016]

17
Exhibit ‘Q’: Chinese. (Su Dongpo, [“He is like white clouds …”], circa 1095 CE)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-q

          “He has gone to the empty cliffs to worship the hundred thousand forms of the Buddha.”

[posted Monday 29 February 2016]

18
Exhibit ‘R’: Russian. (Anton Chekhov, 58 items from his notebooks)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-r

          —Do you want to eat?
          —No, on the contrary.

[posted Thursday 3 March 2016]

19
Exhibit ‘S’: Koryak. (Two folktales, both told by Pa’qa, a girl of Kamenskoye Village on the Penzhinskaya Bay, collected 1901)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-s

          —“It tastes of excrement, it tastes of excrement!”
          —“Mouse-Women have defiled us.”
          —“I will not forgive this. I will stun them with blows. Bring me my big club!”

[posted Monday 7 March 2016]

20
Exhibit ‘T’: USA children. (20th and 21st centuries)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-t

          “What shall I chartreuse today?”

[posted Thursday 10 March 2016]

21
Exhibit ‘U’: Scots Gaelic. (Sorley Maclean, “Hallaig,” 1954)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-u

          “She is a birch, a hazel, a straight slender young rowan.”

[posted Monday 14 March 2016]

22
Exhibit ‘V’: Yoruba. (Anonymous, six animal poems)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-v

          “Little he cares about your hunting medicines: he carries two knives on his head.”

[posted Thursday 17 March 2016]

23
Exhibit ‘W’: Russian. (Anna Akhmatova, [“The twenty-first. Night. Monday.”], 1917)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-w

          “And whether from boredom or from stupidity, everyone believed it, and here's how they live.”

[posted Monday 21 March 2016]

24
Exhibit ‘X’: ancient Greek. (Theocritus, Idylls 2, 3rd century BCE)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-x

          “There are poisons—strong ones—ready for him in my box; I brewed them as an Assyrian woman taught me.”

[posted Thursday 24 March 2016]

25
Exhibit ‘Y’: Hausa (Nigeria). (Anonymous, dan tauri performance, 20th century)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-y

          “Whoever drinks me vanishes!”

[posted Monday 28 March 2016]

26
Exhibit ‘Z’: Sanskrit. (Five poems, two anonymous, one by Vacaspati, one by Vidya, one by Varahamihira; dates unknown)
http://jacket2.org/commentary/twenty-six-items-special-collections-z

          “Let us go cheerfully among them with poised minds.”

[posted Thursday 31 March 2016]

❖