{"product_id":"where-the-sun-sleeps-at-night-9781952781285","title":"Where the Sun Sleeps at Night","description":"\u003cp\u003eLatvia has no national epic (such as Finland's \u003cem\u003eKalevala\u003c\/em\u003e), but an equivalent is the immense body of folk poems, the \u003cem\u003edainas\u003c\/em\u003e--handed down orally over many generations, mostly by women. The \u003cem\u003edainas\u003c\/em\u003e were first collected, written down, and published in 1894-1915, comprising more than 35,000 type texts; this definitive collection is in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWidely sung or recited, the \u003cem\u003edainas\u003c\/em\u003e are a cornerstone of Latvian culture, and the basis for countless works of music, literature, and art. They have also played a political role, most recently in the \"singing revolution\" leading to the renewed independence of the three Baltic states.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBecause of the difficulty in translating the \u003cem\u003edainas\u003c\/em\u003e, English translations have been very rare; this is the first collection in contemporary spoken English. The poems here are bilingual, for readers of English, Latvian, or both languages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe subject matter spans all aspects of human life and of the natural world, including social relationships, rites of passage, work, oppression by foreign overlords, war, mythology, and singing. Central is the expression of a deep, intimate interaction between the human world and nature. A dominant presence is the sun, personified as a female, who is an important participant in human life, notably as a mother figure.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStylistically the \u003cem\u003edainas\u003c\/em\u003e are very condensed, laconic, and restrained, somewhat comparable to Japanese haiku. Multifaceted, they can be viewed as folklore, ethnography, social history, poetry. The focus here is the unique and remarkable poetic imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVinklers, Bitite:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Bitite Vinklers is a translator of Latvian folklore and contemporary literature, with work in numerous anthologies and journals, among them The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Two Lines, and Poetry Wales. Recent book collections of contemporary Latvian poets include Imants Ziedonis, Each Day Catches Fire (Red Dragonfly Press, 2015); Knuts Skujenieks, Seed in Snow (BOA Editions, 2016); and Baiba Bičole, To Taste the River (Plamen Press, 2021). She works as a freelance editor and lives in New York with her husband, spending part of the year in Latvia.","brand":"Mayapple Media LLC","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52078246396178,"sku":"9781952781285","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_bedd3aba-6aca-44ae-94a4-97e2364330a3.jpg?v=1772538276","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/where-the-sun-sleeps-at-night-9781952781285","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}