Introduction

The Introduction situates David Jones’s work as a poet–artist within the broader currents of high and late modernism, particularly within the context of a tradition of medievalism in twentieth-century poetry. It draws on Alexander Nagel’s conception of the medieval modern to show how Jones approaches the culture and history of the early Middle Ages as a form of live material open to play and adaptation. The Introduction also reframes our understanding of David Jones’s perception of himself as Anglo-Welsh in relation to changing attitudes to early medieval Welsh (Celtic) and English (Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic) history over the course of his lifetime. This discussion introduces the monograph’s central argument: as a poet of the medieval modern, Jones plays with and reworks early medieval English histories, narratives, and artefacts in order to challenge the singularity and exceptionalism of an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ canon.

Bread in Lithuanian Literature

Bread is one of the most important cultural realities distinguished by its direct and symbolic significance. In Lithuanian folklore, there are clear direct connections between bread and the most important categories of national values: diligence, thoughtfulness, responsibility, kindness, and spiritual nobility. Bread symbolises strength, mind, self-control, loyalty, kindness, and humility. It was of immense sacral importance in the lives of our ancestors: it became the central element of numerous customs of family life, calendar rituals, agrarian celebrations, and was widely featured in Lithuanian folk songs, fairy-tales, tales, and beliefs. Bread has always been an important image in Lithuanian literature. A loaf of bread, a slice of bread, daily, wholemeal bread, the bread of life, mother’s bread are traditional images of Lithuanian poetry and prose, reflecting the reality of the nation’s life and at the same time visually drawing the hierarchy of the nation’s spiritual values. In the poem Metai (The Seasons), the pioneer of Lithuanian literature Kristijonas Donelaitis gives a vivid picture of the life of the serfs of Lithuania Minor in the eighteenth century, and his characters primarily address their thanks to God for giving people bread, the greatest grace of all. Since then, images of the worshiped daily bread have become stronger in literature, pointing to its vital importance. The image of holy bread takes root in Lithuanian twentieth-century poetry, perhaps most clearly meaningful in the work by Kazys Bradūnas, one of žemininkai, or the ‘earth’ poets. In his poetry, bread is associated with the meanings of the holiness of agricultural existence. In the poet’s work, bread is an important moment in the cosmogony of the microworld, symbolising rebirth and the higher moments of an individual’s existence. Such a poetic interpretation of bread is also characteristic of Sigitas Geda’s works. In the poetry of Justinas Marcinkevičius, Janina Degutytė, Alfonsas Maldonis, and Robertas Keturakis, bread becomes an important element in the poetic programme of goodness and is associated with the artistic meanings of human spiritual nobility, inner warmth, and love. In Lithuanian literature, bread emerges both as the great manifestation of the woman in traditional Lithuanian culture (Birutė Baltrušaitytė, Vanda Juknaitė) and as a symbol of harmony in dehumanised reality (Juozas Kundrotas). One of the most striking literary transformations of the artistic image of bread is its desacralisation in the works by Valdas Gedgaudas and the group “Svetimi” (Strangers). Here bread is interpreted as a symbol of chaos and disharmony between the human and the world. Thus, one of the most important realities of Lithuanian culture, the image of bread in Lithuanian literature, is changing; it reflects the worldview of the human of the epoch and his or her spiritual orientations and attitudes.

“The Star of Venusˮ in Russian poetry of the 20th century: mythopoetic symbolism

Being a part of the astronomical, temporal, anthropomorphic linguocultural codes, Venus as a celestial body has a significant place in the Russian verbal culture. This statement can be proved not only when analysing linguistic units, but also when referring to literary works, in particular to Russian lyric poetry. Twenty four poetic contexts, which include the image of Venus, have been analysed in the article (the works by Alexander Pushkin, Georgy Adamovich, Pavel Antokolsky, Leonid Martynov, Mikhail Zenkevich, Alexander Blok, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Nikolay Gumilyov, Marina Tsvetaeva, Fyodor Sologub, Mikhail Kuzmin, Georgy Shengeli, Ilya Selvinsky, Konstantin Simonov, Anatoliy Demyanov). The authors focus on the Russian 20th century lyric poetry because it is there that Venus appears as a star rather than a planet, and this corresponds to the archaic notions of this celestial body. Mercury and Mars are also called 'stars' in the 20th century poetry, but in a much smaller number of contexts than Venus. The authors come to the conclusion that Venus in Russian poets’ works can symbolise the onset of morning / evening, love, paradise, loneliness, fate, youth, old age, life journey. Moreover, Venus is included into poetic conceptions (it corresponds to the image of the Beautiful Lady in Alexander Blok’s poetry). The set of the above-mentioned symbolic meanings correlates with the archaic notions of Venus, widens them and makes the image of this celestial body mythopoetic.

Vergilija „Eneīdas” mēģinājumi latviešu heksametros

This paper presents the compilation and analysis of the Latvian translations of the Aeneid, the Latin epic poem written by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), from the first attempts in the late 19th century until the most recent publication in 1970. The materials analysed also include republications of translation excerpts. The source texts are arranged and revised chronologically, and the text analysis is achieved through the comparative method. Particular attention is paid to the translation issues of the dactylic hexameter, the ancient meter also known as “the meter of the epic”. There is no tradition in the Latvian cultural context to render epic poems into prose or any other meter than the dactylic hexameter. Augusts Ģiezens is the most prolific translator of epic poems in Latvian and has translated all Ancient Greek epic poems and the Roman Aeneid. Consequently, his version of the dactylic hexameter has established itself as an example for many generations of readers. The reason for this is the lack or unavailability of other translations. The comparison of translations also offers a look into the rendering of ancient proper nouns. Particular care is devoted to critiques of the translations as published by contemporaries in the press. The variations of translation strategies in early 20th-century poetry renderings in terms of both meter and proper noun rendering lead to the conclusion that attempts in creating a Latvian hexameter have not yet been exhausted and are likely to find new manifestations, particularly in Latvian ancient poetry translation.