To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light [Paperback]

Willis Barnstone (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999

To Touch the Sky contains Willis Barnstone's translations of some of the most inspiring writing of world literature: ten mystical and spiritual poets spanning three thousand years.

Included are

• The Song of Songs
• Poems (Sappho)
• The Cosmic Fragments (Herakleitos)
• Saying Poems (Yeshua the Messiah)
• Apocalypse (John of Patmos)
• Taoist and Buddhist Poems (Wang Wei)
• Allegorical Bestiary (Bishop Theobaldus)
• Mystical Poems (Mira Bai)
• Mystical Poems (St. John of the Cross)
• Sonnets to Orpheus (Rainer Maria Rilke)

The poetry included here spans three thousand years and contains some of the most profound and inspiring writing of world literature: some following the way of fantastic realism while some is mysto-erotic. As Barnstone says: "[I]n the instance of our authors, the unsayable has been refashioned into the precision of poetry."

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

About the Author

Willis Barnstone is a poet, translator, and religious scholar. Author of The Gnostic Bible, Cafè de l’Aube à Paris (French), and The Restored New Testament, he is a distinguished professor emeritus of comparative literature and biblical studies at Indiana University. 

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (February 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081121396X
• ISBN-13: 978-0811213967
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,225,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Title doesn't really convey what's inside, April 5, 2008

By 

Judie C. Rall "spiritjoy" (Lawton, Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To Touch the Sky: Poems of Mystical, Spiritual & Metaphysical Light (Paperback)

I would have liked to have known ahead of time that this book basically only contains three poems, that they are hundreds of years old, and that they weren't written by the author whose name is on the cover. One is the Song of Solomon from the Bible, which I am sorry to say doesn't really meet my standards for what is "metaphysical." It's a love poem, but that's not really what I was looking for. I don't really feel I have "touched the sky" when I read the Song of Solomon. I was really looking or something to inspire me in my daily life.