Martin Bidney

Martin Bidney, Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University (State University of New York at Binghamton), has published 22 books of poetry and 2 of literary criticism. Founding editor of the Dialogic Poetry Press, he also founded a new genre of literature by combining translations (from Polish, Russian, German) or presentations of traditional literary works of high value (Shakespeare's Sonnets, passages from Pickthall's translation of the Qur'an) with verse...See more

Martin Bidney, Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at Binghamton University (State University of New York at Binghamton), has published 22 books of poetry and 2 of literary criticism. Founding editor of the Dialogic Poetry Press, he also founded a new genre of literature by combining translations (from Polish, Russian, German) or presentations of traditional literary works of high value (Shakespeare's Sonnets, passages from Pickthall's translation of the Qur'an) with verse replies in forms influenced by the mentors he presents and/or translates. The "floating refrain" poem that stimulated the present book was Bidney's translation of a lyric by Norwegian poet Andre' Bjerke (with the assistance of Alexander Schlayer's German rendering). Among the authors with whom Bidney has conducted colloquies in his books of verse are Germany's greatest poet J. W. von Goethe (whose "West-East Divan" Bidney translated, adding to it another complete "divan" or verse-collection of his own in the form of commentary poems), the 19th century German lyricist and linguist Friedrich Rueckert, Poland's greatest poet Adam Mickiewicz (Bidney dialogues with the latter's "Crimean Sonnets"), the early 14th century Sufi theosopher Ibn Arabi (Bidney writes 99 sonnets embodies the latter's teachings), the later 14th century Persian poet Hafiz (Bidney's source here is Joseph von Hammer's world-class German verse renderings of Hafiz), and the biblical King Solomon (whose "Song of Songs" Bidney turned from the King James version into English rhymed and metered verse, adding 280 love lyrics of his own). He has also translated eight complete collections of verse by Nikolay Gumilev, the Russian master who visited Africa 5 times during the same period of history as the trip made by Joseph Conrad. In the 14 years of his emeritation Bidney has published 22 poetry books. See less