Stephen Mitchell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Stephen Mitchell, (born Brooklyn, NY in 1943) is an acclaimed poet, translator (of French, Greek, Latin, German, and Hebrew), even philosopher who has studied at Amherst College, the University of Paris, and Yale. He has translated Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry, the Book of Job, the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, and the Epic of Gilgamesh. Some of these are not true translations from the original text, but rather poetic interpretations that use existing translations to gather the meaning of the original text. Original works include the childrens book The Wishing Bone and Other Poems--which is a collection of nine poems, and acclaimed book The Frog Prince.

Receiving most of his acclaim from translation of ancient texts into modern English renditions, Mitchell's finest works have been praised by critics, scholars, and common readers. The Epic of Gilgamesh was chosen Editor's Choice of The New York Times Book Review, was selected as the Book Sense 2004 Highlight for Poetry. It is also being featured as a holiday recommendation on NPR’s All Things Considered. His rendition of Hans Christian Andersen's The Nightingale has been dubbed: A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2002, New York Public Library Children's Books: 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, New England Book Show--Juvenile Category Winner, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Award Winner, and The National Council of Teachers of English 2002 Notable Children's Books. When it comes to translating, Mitchell claims "I find tone as important as content."

Mitchell's books link together ideas from Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity and is strongly influenced by Zen Buddhism. He was an early student of the Korean Zen teacher Seung Sahn, and edited a book of his teachings, entitled Dropping Ashes on the Buddha ISBN 0-8021-3052-6. He has also viewed Thomas Jefferson as a mentor and teacher. Mitchell followed in Jefferson's footsteps by editing the words of Jesus and with his fervent religious writings.

Mitchell is married to the self-help expert Byron Katie, and cowrote her first book, Loving What Is.

[edit] Books

  • The Sonnets to Orpheus Simon & Schuster, 1985
  • The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Vintage reissue 1989, ISBN 0-679-72201-7
  • Parables And Portraits HarperCollins, 1991
  • Tao Te Ching, Perennial 1992, ISBN 0-06-081245-1
  • The Book of Job, Harper Perennial 1992, ISBN 0-06-096959-8
  • The Gospel According to Jesus, Harper Perennial reprint 1993, ISBN 0-06-092321-0
  • The Enlightened Mind, (an anthology of mystical prose from diverse world traditions), Perennial reprint 1993, ISBN 0-06-092320-2
  • The Enlightened Heart, (an anthology of mystical poetry), Harper Perennial 1993, ISBN 0-06-092053-X
  • A Book of Psalms: Selected and Adapted from the Hebrew, Perennial reissue 1994, ISBN 0-06-092470-5
  • Genesis: A New Translation, Harper Collins Publishers 1996, ISBN 0-06-017249-5, paperback ISBN 0-06-092856-5
  • Selected Poems of Pablo Neruda, HarperCollins, 1997
  • The Selected Poetry of Dan Pagis, University of California Press 1996
  • The Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai (with Chana Bloch), University of California Press, 1996
  • Meeting with the Archangel, HarperCollins, 1998
  • The Frog Prince, Harmony Books, 1999
  • Bhagavad Gita: A New Translation, Three Rivers Press 2002, ISBN 0-609-81034-0
  • Jesus: What He Really Said and Did, Harpertempest 2002, ISBN 0-06-449009-2
  • Gilgamesh: A New English Version, Free Press 2004, ISBN 0-7432-6164-X
  • Bestiary: An Anthology of Poems about Animals, Frog, Ltd., 1996
  • Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn, Grove Press, 1976
  • The Essence of Wisdom, Broadway Books, 1998
  • Into the Garden: A Wedding Anthology, (with Robert Hass) HarperCollins, 1993
  • The Wishing Bone and Other Poems, Candlewick Press, 2003
  • The Nightingale, By Hans Christian Andersen, Candlewick Press, 2002
  • Jesus: What He Really Said and Did, HarperCollins, 2002
  • The Creation, Dial, 1990

[edit] External links


 This article about a poet is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/t/e/Stephen_Mitchell_9f1d.html"