Into the Garden

Ray Olson

Editors Hass and Mitchell say they're responding with this book to a request often made of poets: that they suggest readings appropriate to a wedding. Each a poet and translator--Mitchell of some of the world's great religious literature, including "Job", the "Tao Te Ching", and the words of Jesus, which experience surely helps in selecting readings suitable to a ceremony that most still regard as religious--the two cast their net widely in world literature. So here are American Indian, aboriginal Australian, ancient Egyptian, Buddhist, Hindu, and Sufi poetry and prose in addition to the more expectable biblical, classical Greek and Roman, European, and American passages (with some of the old poems' language gently adapted to make them more consonant with modern sentiments). What's more, Hass and Mitchell append a little treasury of traditional or tradition-respecting ceremonies (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, nontheistic Judeo-Christian, Zen, and "Zen-Unitarian-Catholic-American-Transcendental ist"), each of which is quite lovely. Consider getting at least a couple of copies of this sterling book, one for the wedding reference collection, the other for circulating as a superb literary anthology.