Poems of the First Buddhist Women

Poems of the First Buddhist Women
Author:
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2021-02-23
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0674251350

The Therīgāthā is one of the oldest surviving literatures by women, composed more than two millennia ago and originally collected as part of the Pali canon of Buddhist scripture. These poems were written by some of the first Buddhist women—therīs—honored for their religious achievements. Through imaginative verses about truth and freedom, the women recount their lives before ordination and their joy at attaining liberation from samsara. Poems of the First Buddhist Women offers startling insights into the experiences of women in ancient times that continue to resonate with modern readers. With a spare and elegant style, this powerful translation introduces us to a classic of world literature.

The First Free Women

The First Free Women
Author: Matty Weingast
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2020-02-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0834842688

An Ancient Collection Reimagined Composed around the Buddha’s lifetime, the Therigatha (“Verses of the Elder Nuns”) contains the poems of the first Buddhist women: princesses and courtesans, tired wives of arranged marriages and the desperately in love, those born into limitless wealth and those born with nothing at all. The original authors of the Therigatha were women from every kind of background, but they all shared a deep-seated desire for awakening and liberation. In The First Free Women, Matty Weingast has reimagined this ancient collection and created a contemporary and radical adaptation that takes the essence of each poem and highlights the struggles and doubts, as well as the strength, perseverance, and profound compassion, embodied by these courageous women.

Therigatha

Therigatha
Author:
Publisher: Murty Classical Library of India
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015
Genre: Buddhist poetry
ISBN: 9780674427730

The Therīgāthā, composed more than two millennia ago, is an anthology of poems in the Pali language by and about the first Buddhist women. These women were therīs, the senior ones, among ordained Buddhist women, and they bore that epithet because of their religious achievements. The poems they left behind are arguably among the most ancient examples of women's writing in the world and they are unmatched for their quality of personal expression and the extraordinary insight they offer into the lives of women in the ancient Indian past--and indeed, into the lives of women as such. This new version of the Therīgāthā, based on a careful reassessment of the major editions of the work and printed in the Roman script common for modern editions of Pali texts, offers the most powerful and the most readable translation ever achieved in English. The Murty Classical Library of India makes available original texts and modern English translations of the masterpieces of literature and thought from across the whole spectrum of Indic languages over the past two millennia in the most authoritative and accessible formats on offer anywhere.

First Buddhist Women

First Buddhist Women
Author: Susan Murcott
Publisher: Parallax Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2002-02-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 188837554X

First Buddhist Women is a readable, contemporary translation of and commentary on the enlightenment verses of the first female disciples of the Buddha. The book explores Buddhism’s relatively liberal attitude towards women since its founding nearly 2,600 years ago, through the study of the Therigatham, the earliest know collection of women’s religious poetry. Through commentary and storytelling, author Susan Murcott traces the journey of the wives, mothers, teachers, courtesan, prostitutes, and wanderers who became leaders in the Buddhist community, roles that even today are rarely filled by women in other patriarchal religions. Their poetry beautifully expresses their search for spiritual attainment and their struggles in society.

Daughters of Emptiness

Daughters of Emptiness
Author: Beata Grant
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 210
Release: 2003
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0861713621

The author has performed a great service in recovering and translating the enchanting poems and talks of twenty nuns from the period 1600 to 1850.

Songs of the Sons and Daughters of Buddha

Songs of the Sons and Daughters of Buddha
Author:
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1611808227

A lyrical translation of an inspired selection of verses from the earliest Buddhist monks and nuns. More than two thousand years ago, the earliest disciples of the Buddha put into verse their experiences on the spiritual journey--from their daily struggles to their spiritual realizations. Over time the verses were collected to form the Theragatha and Therigatha, the "Verses of Elder Monks" and "Verses of Elder Nuns" respectively. In Songs of the Sons and Daughters of the Buddha, renowned poets Andrew Schelling and Anne Waldman have translated the most poignant poems in these collections, bringing forth the visceral, immediate qualities that are often lost in more scholarly renditions. These selections reveal the fears, loves, mishaps, expectations, and joys of the early monks and nuns, when, struck by wild insight, they cried out the anguish or solace they knew in their lives.

Women of the Way

Women of the Way
Author: Sallie Tisdale
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2008-11-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0061980161

In this groundbreaking work, Sallie Tisdale traces women Buddhist masters and teachers across continents and centuries, drawing upon historical, cultural, and Buddhist records to bring to life these narratives of ancestral Buddhist women.

Ariake

Ariake
Author:
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2000-04
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9780811828130

Books like Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha have signaled the current fascination with the discreetly private side of Japan during the evocative age of dynasties and imperial rule. Ariake, a stunning gift book, offers up the passionate words of the elegant and cultured female courtesans of ancient Japan. It was customary in the late 1st and early 2nd century Japanese courts for women to express their hearts' greatest desires and sorrows through poetry. Translated and compiled in Ariake, these lyrical and poignant verses of seduction, love, and lament are both simple and extraordinary. Illustrated throughout with gorgeous collages that evoke the color, fabric, and textures of the East, Ariake brings to life the subtle eloquence of ancient Japan and the universal passions and torments of love. Ariake is an exquisite and timeless volume of the heart's longing.

Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001

Poetry of Witness: The Tradition in English, 1500-2001
Author: Carolyn Forché
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 672
Release: 2014-01-27
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0393347664

A groundbreaking anthology containing the work of poets who have witnessed war, imprisonment, torture, and slavery. A companion volume to Against Forgetting, Poetry of Witness is the first anthology to reveal a tradition that runs through English-language poetry. The 300 poems collected here were composed at an extreme of human endurance—while their authors awaited execution, endured imprisonment, fought on the battlefield, or labored on the brink of breakdown or death. All bear witness to historical events and the irresistibility of their impact. Alongside Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth, this volume includes such writers as Anne Askew, tortured and executed for her religious beliefs during the reign of Henry VIII; Phillis Wheatley, abducted by slave traders; Samuel Bamford, present at the Peterloo Massacre in 1819; William Blake, who witnessed the Gordon Riots of 1780; and Samuel Menashe, survivor of the Battle of the Bulge. Poetry of Witness argues that such poets are a perennial feature of human history, and it presents the best of that tradition, proving that their work ranks alongside the greatest in the language.

Gazing at the Moon

Gazing at the Moon
Author: Meredith McKinney
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2021-09-07
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1611809428

A fresh translation of the classical Buddhist poetry of Saigyō, whose aesthetics of nature, love, and sorrow came to epitomize the Japanese poetic tradition. Saigyō, the Buddhist name of Fujiwara no Norikiyo (1118–1190), is one of Japan’s most famous and beloved poets. He was a recluse monk who spent much of his life wandering and seeking after the Buddhist way. Combining his love of poetry with his spiritual evolution, he produced beautiful, lyrical lines infused with a Buddhist perception of the world. Gazing at the Moon presents over one hundred of Saigyō’s tanka—traditional 31-syllable poems—newly rendered into English by renowned translator Meredith McKinney. This selection of poems conveys Saigyō’s story of Buddhist awakening, reclusion, seeking, enlightenment, and death, embodying the Japanese aesthetic ideal of mono no aware—to be moved by sorrow in witnessing the ephemeral world.