Women in praise of the sacred : 43 centuries of spiritual poetry by women / edited by Jane Hirshfield.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-250) and index.

Enheduanna (ca. 2300 B.C.E.). from The Hymn to Inanna -- Shu-Sin's Ritual Bride (ca. 2000 B.C.E.). Bridegroom, beloved of my heart -- Makeda, Queen of Sheba (ca. 1000 B.C.E.). Wisdom is. I fell -- Sappho (7th c. B.C.E.). Leave Crete. Evening Star who gathers everything -- Sumangalamata (6th c. B.C.E.). At last free -- Patacara (6th c. B.C.E.). When they plow their fields -- Zi Ye (6th-3rd c. B.C.E.). All night I could not sleep.

Song of Songs: The Shulammite (ca. 3rd c. B.C.E.). I am dark, daughters of Jerusalem (Song 1:5-6). At night on my bed I longed for (Song 3:1-5). I was asleep but my heart stayed awake (Song 5:2-6). Come, my beloved (Song 7:12-14) -- Pan Zhao (48-117?). Needle and Thread -- Gnostic Gospel: Nag Hammadi Library (2nd-4th c.). from The Thunder: Perfect Mind -- A Roman Spell (2nd-4th c.?). I bind you by oath -- Sabina Lampadius (fl. ca. 377). As a symbol -- Antal (8th c.).

O sister of wealth. O you who guard over. We rose before dawn -- Rabi'a (717-801). I am fully qualified to work as a doorkeeper ... O my Lord, /if I worship you. O my Lord, /the stars glitter -- Yeshe Tsogyel (757?-817?). Listen, /O brothers and sisters -- Lakshminkara (8th c.). Lay your head on a block of butter and chop -- -- Three Tantric Buddhist Women's Songs (8th-11th c.). KYE HO! Wonderful!/Lotus pollen wakes up ... Who speaks the sound of an echo?

KYE HO! Wonderful!/You may say "existence". . . -- Kassiane (804?-?). Troparion -- Yu Xuanji (843?-868). At Home in the Summer Mountains -- Izumi Shikibu (974?-1034?). I cannot say. Watching the moon. Although I try. Although the wind. The way I must enter -- Ly Ngoc Kieu (1041-1113). Birth, old age -- Li Qingzhao (1084-1151?). Written to the Tune "The Fisherman's Honor" -- Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Antiphon for Divine Wisdom. Antiphon for the Holy Spirit.

Antiphon for the Angels. Song to the Creator. Alleluia-verse for the Virgin -- Kojiju (1121?-1201?). On the Spirit of the Heart as Moon-Disk -- Sun Bu-er (1124-?). Cut brambles long enough. Late Indian summer's -- Zhou Xuanjing (12th c.). Meditating at midnight -- Cui Shaoxuan (dates unknown). Black hair and red cheeks: for how long? -- Mahadeviyakka (12th c.). (On Her Decision to Stop Wearing Clothes). So long as this breath fills your nostrils. When I am hungry.

A vein of sapphires. It was like a stream. When the body becomes Your mirror. I do not call it his sign -- Mechtild of Magdeburg (1207?-1282? or 1297?). I cannot dance, O Lord. A fish cannot drown in water. God speaks to the soul. How the soul speaks to God. How God answers the soul. The desert has many teachings. How God comes to the soul. Effortlessly. God's absence. True love in every moment praises God. Of all that God has shown me -- Marguerite Porete (?-1310).

Beloved, what do you want of me? -- Hadewijch of Antwerp (13th c.). Love's maturity. Knowing Love in herself. Love's constancy. The madness of love. Love has subjugated me -- Hadewijch II (13th c.). All things/are too small. If I desire something, I know it not. Tighten/to nothing. You who want/knowledge -- The French Beguine (late 13th c.). from The Soul Speaks -- Jusammi Chikako (fl. ca. 1300). On this summer night -- Janabai (1298?-1350?). Cast off all shame.

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). from Prayer 20 -- Lal Ded (14th c.?). I drag a boat over the ocean. I was passionate. The soul, like the moon. This world, /compared to You -. Coursing in emptiness. To learn the scriptures is easy. I searched for my Self. On the way to God the difficulties. At the end of a crazy-moon night -- Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547). As a starved little bird, who sees and hears. I see in my mind, surrounding God -- Mirabai (1498-1565?).

O friends, I am mad. Love has stained my body. All I Was Doing Was Breathing. The wild woman of the forests. O friends on this Path. The song of the flute, O sister, is madness. O friend, understand: the body. Why Mira Can't Go Back to Her Old House. I was going to the river for water. The Heat of Midnight Tears. It's True I Went to the Market -- Teresa of Avila (1515-1582). (Lines written on a bookmark found in her Breviary) -- Maria de' Medici, Queen of France (1573-1642).

(To the Virgin) -- Two Nahuatl Invocations (early 1600s). (Invocation for storing corn). (A midwife's invocation) -- Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672). from The Vanity of All Worldly Things -- Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg (1633-1694). On the Ineffable Inspiration of the Holy Spirit. On the Fruit-Providing Autumn Season. from On the Sweet Comfort Brought by Grace -- Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648?-1695). Because my Lord was born to suffer. Since Love is shivering.

Chiyo-ni (1703-1775). The morning glory! Grazing/ my fishing line. From the mind/of a single, long vine -- Ann Griffiths (1776-1805). His left hand, in heat of noonday -- Emily Bronte (1818-1848). No coward soul is mine -- Bibi Hayati (?-1853). Is this darkness the night of Power ... Before there was a trace of this world of men -- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). Who has not found the Heaven -- below -. I never saw a Moor -. Death is a dialogue between.

The Props assist the House. Dare you see a Soul at the White Heat? I'm ceded -- I've stopped being Theirs -. 'Tis little I -- could care for Pearls -. I had been hungry, all the Years -. Mine -- by the Right of the White Election! Wild Nights -- Wild Nights! The Infinite a sudden Guest. Let me not thirst with this Hock at my Lip -- A Georgia Sea Island Shout Song (19th c.). Down to the Mire -- Penny Jessye's Deathbed Spiritual (19th c.). Good Lord in That Heaven.

Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894). After Communion. from Behold a Shaking. Amen. from Later Life: A Double Sonnet of Sonnets -- Uvavnuk (19th c.). The great sea -- Two Kwakiutl Women's Prayers (ca. 1895). Prayer of a Woman in Charge of Berry Picking ... Prayer to the Sockeye Salmon -- Owl Woman (mid-19th-early 20th c.). How shall I begin my song. Brown owls come here in the blue evening. Black Butte is far. The morning star is up.

An Osage Woman's Initiation Song (early 20th c.). Planting Initiation Song -- A Traditional Navajo Prayer (early 20th c.). Dark young pine, at the center of the earth originating -- H.D. (1886-1961). White World. from The Walls Do Not Fall [25]. from The Walls Do Not Fall [36]. from Sagesse [10] -- Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966). Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold. A land not mine, still. Summer Garden -- Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957). from Prayer. The Rose.

Those Who Do Not Dance. Song -- Nelly Sachs (1891-1970). How long have we forgotten how to listen! Your eyes, O my beloved. Someone. Rushing at times like flames. In the evening your vision widens. But perhaps God needs the longing -- Edith Sodergran (1892-1923). On Foot I Had to Walk Through the Solar Systems. "There is no one . . ." Forest Lake. Question. Homecoming -- Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941). I know the truth. I bless the daily labor.

If the soul was born with pinions. God (3). The gold that was my hair has turned -- Kadya Molodowsky (1894-1975). Prayers: I -- Sub-ok (1902-1966). Spring at Yesan Station.

This groundbreaking anthology presents the spiritual life of women throughout history as recorded in their poems, prayers, and songs. Beginning with the hymns of the world's earliest identified author (a Sumerian moon priestess) and continuing to the first half of the twentieth century, it draws from the major religious traditions of East and West as well as from several indigenous cultures. Among the seventy women included are mystics and healers, spiritual teachers and mothers, saints and rebels, freed slaves and queens, each of whom forged a unique way to an authentic voice and genuine spiritual awakening. Their words and stories and the editor's insightful commentaries illuminate fundamental themes of spiritual life that resonate across time, culture, and gender, as well as issues particular to women in their quest for a viable spiritual path. This collection of luminous and inspiring poems (many in new translations) will be for readers both female and male a rich and enduring sourcebook of spiritual life.

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