[Rarebooks] FS: Apiary Press title: The House of Song (Mesoamerican poetry)

[Isabel's Books]

Happy New Year!
 
For sale:
 

Edward Kissam, translator. The House of Song. Northampton, Mass.: The Apiary Press, [c.1965]. Oblong 8vo. Saddle-sewn wrappers (small tears where string passes through the paper) with thin cardboard covers. Somewhat shaken. Edges of boards are worn. Several small stains on boards. Small tears to base of spine.  12 single-sides pages, unnumbered. Limited to 25 copies. It appears that the number of this volume has been erased. Signed by the translator and printer.  Dust jacket has many small chips and tears, and one very large one on the back. Covered in mylar. Mesoamerican poetry illustrated with woodcuts. Still a nice copy of a scarce title from a notable fine press. $250.00 postpaid.

 

“These are the songs of a culture preoccupies entirely with death. Throughout Mesoamerica a mythology grew up in which the prime duty, necessity, was the perpetuation of the sun. Legends of the creation stress the difficulties and failures of the gods in creating the world. And once the task was completed, once the world was brought into existence it fell to men to perpetuate this creation through blood sacrifice. Human life was exchanged for the continued life of the sun. Blood for light. These particular poems are not the usual ones found in Aztec literature. Most of the poetry was epic: either praise of the gods, stories of heroes, or war chants. Here, a less brash tone predominates; the poet seems able to throw off the fetters of the theocracy he often served. My versions are taken from Angel Maria Garibay’s translation into Spanish of Nahuatl texts in ‘Cantares Mexicanos,’ a huge collection of Indian poetry made around 1560 by Fray Bernardino de Sahagun. Before then, the poems
 had been chanted to the accompaniment of music and dancing.” – from the introduction.

 

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Michael

Isabel's Books
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