Glossator 8

Glossator 8 (2013) Kafka's Zurau Aphorisms -- Michael Cisco Sensuous and Scholarly Reading in Keats's 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' -- Thomas Day Notes to Stephen Rodefer's Four Lectures (1982) -- Ian Heames Ornate and Explosive Grief: A Comparative Commentary on Frank O'Hara's "In Memory of My Feelings" and "To Hell With It", Incorporating a Substantial Gloss on the Serpent in the Poetry of Paul Valéry, and a Theoretical Excursus on Ornate Poetics -- Sam Ladkin On In Memory of Your Occult Convolutions -- Richard Parker

Compiled in 1582, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain is one of the two principal sources of Nahuatl song, as well as a poetical window into the mindset of the Aztec people some sixty years after the conquest of Mexico. Presented as a cancionero, or anthology, in the mode of New Spain, the ballads show a reordering—but not an abandonment—of classic Aztec values. In the careful reading of John Bierhorst, the ballads reveal in no uncertain terms the pre-conquest Aztec belief in the warrior's paradise and in the virtue of sacrifice. This volume contains an exact transcription of the thirty-six Nahuatl song texts, accompanied by authoritative English translations. Bierhorst includes all the numerals (which give interpretive clues) in the Nahuatl texts and also differentiates the text from scribal glosses. His translations are thoroughly annotated to help readers understand the imagery and allusions in the texts. The volume also includes a helpful introduction and a larger essay, "On the Translation of Aztec Poetry," that discusses many relevant historical and literary issues. In Bierhorst's expert translation and interpretation, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain emerges as a song of resistance by a conquered people and the recollection of a glorious past. Announcing a New Digital Initiative http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/utdigital/ UT Press, in a new collaboration with the University of Texas Libraries, will publish an interactive digital adaptation of the Ballads that will expand the scholarly content beyond what is possible to publish in book form. The web site, to launch in conjunction with the book in July 2009, includes all of the printed book plus scans of the original codex, a normative transcription, and space to interact with the author and other scholars, as well as art, audio, a map, and other related material. The digital Ballads will be open access, bringing one of the university’s rare holdings to scholars around the world.

Pervaded as it is with pessimism, paradox, and a multitude of contradictions, Ecclesiastes has long been one of the most difficult books of the Bible to understand. As this study demonstrates, however, it is precisely these contradictions that make Ecclesiastes so meaningful and so powerfully relevant to life in the world. By looking carefully at the language and thought of Ecclesiastes, as well as at its uses of contradictions in probing the meaning of life, Fox confronts the problems that have confounded interpretation of this biblical book. He shows that by using contradiction to tear down holistic claims of meaning and purpose in the world and rebuilding meaning in a local, restricted sense instead, the author of Ecclesiastes shapes a bold, honest-and ultimately uplifting-vision of life. Based on solid scholarly insight yet readable by all, Fox's work provides some of the best commentary available on this challenging section of Scripture.

In this important new intervention, leading poet and critic John Wilkinson explores the material life of the lyric poem. How does the lyric – considered as an object, as an event – grapple with permanence and impermanence, the rhythms of change and the passing of time? Drawing on new insights from contemporary philosophy and object-oriented ontology, psychoanalysis and the visual arts, The Lyric in Its Times includes innovative and insightful new readings of work by a wide range of lyric poets, from Shakespeare, Blake and Shelley to Charles Baudelaire, Frank O'Hara and J.H. Prynne.

This ground-breaking study in Septuagint translation technique is, after sixty years, finally available to an English-speaking audience. Barthélemy provides us with a first look at the fragments of the Greek Minor Prophets Scroll from the Cave of Horror and embarks on a careful examination of this scroll’s place in the history of Septuagint translation and revision. He poses questions and answers that have yet to be fully explored. Devanciers d’Aquila is described as “epoch-making” (Robert Kraft—Gnomon), “a stimulating contribution” (Sidney Jellicoe—Journal of the American Oriental Society), and “a monograph of singular importance” (Geza Vermes–Journal of Semitic Studies).

This book explores the intellectual foundations of the Benedictine reform in tenth-century England. It examines the importance of the vernacular at Bishop Æthelwold's influential Winchester school. Æthelwold's early career is also examined, showing the influence King Æthelstan's court had on intellectual and spiritual thought.