One of my interview-volumes of versetranslations with original dialogic verse replies is Poems of Wine and Tavern Romance: A Dialogue with the Persian PoetHafiz (Albany: SUNY Press, 2013) W. L Hanaway in Choice (April 2014): 1394-5 writes: “In this fascinating andappealing book, Bidney…provides English translations of 103 of Hafiz’s poems from von Hammer-Purgstall’s German and provides a poetic ‘reply’ to each.”

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My West-EastDivan: The Poems, with “Notes and Essays” – Goethe’s Intercultural Dialogues (Albany:SUNY Press, 2010), 249 poems translated with original dialogic verse replies,
has garnered four published reviews in major venues. I’ll offer representative
comments.

(1) Max Reinhart, in Studies in Romanticism 52 (Summer 2013): 311-13 writes: “Entirelyin the ludic mode of the author of the West-östlicherDivan (1819, revised and expanded, 1827), the American poet Martin Bidneyhas journeyed east ringing the questing bell of his own caravan, issuing call
and response to his brother Goethe and Goethe’s adoptive ‘twin,’ the fourteenth-century
Persian ghazal writer Hafiz of Shiraz, in both translation and independent
verse. This translation sets a new standard for Goethe’s Divan.” He adds: “Bidney’s commentary poems deserve the point thatcriticism is not only possible in verse but may be, for its closer proximity to
the poetic world of the original, equally, if differently, penetrating than the
more familiar literary cricism in prose.”

(2) Erlis Wickersham, in Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the GoetheSociety of North America XIX (Camden House, 2012): 280-1, writes: “This isan unusual book, a delightful combination of solid research and poetic inspiration, as befits a project whose major purpose is to offer a contemporary
translation of Goethe’s West-östlicherDivan.” Wickersham continues: “Goethe also explicitly states that he wastrying to write simple, direct, accessible poems. Thus, their translation will
also have the same qualities, and it certainly does. It is excellent and
eminently readable. …Finally, we can confidently assert that this book is a
large and successful undertaking, challenging and intriguingly original.”

(3) Ronald Dart, in Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice (August 19, 2012), anonline journal, writes: “The ‘Introduction’ and ‘Commentary Poems’ for Goethe’s West-East Divan by Martin Bidney makefor an exquisite dessert after a literary feast from a well prepared table.
Goethe would be more than pleased and delighted with Bidney’s palate pleasing
literary insights and poetry.” He adds: “There is a welcome tone and texture to
Bidney’s translations, and meditative reads of each of the poems win and woo
the longing soul. …The 242 poems by Bidney are must read keepers on Goethe and
many other poets. The hefty text would have been much weaker without Bidney’s
final poetic reflections. …Bidney has translated the texts well, brought together some of the finest scholars on Goethe and Islam and advanced the opportunities for a higher and more sophisticated approach to the West and Islam.”

(4) Gustav Seibt, in the prestigious Munichnewspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr.211 (September 2011) p. 16, says that Goethe’s East-West Divan is an “unprecedentedly bold, humanly andreligiously liberated work of old age of the greatest poet of the German language. . . a work that seems suited more than any other in European literature to resolve the constraints and misunderstandings between Islam and
the West. On top of this, the translation mentioned is indeed outstanding. Is it a classic? Not yet. . . This American Divan is so good that one could put it into the hands of everymusician of the [Daniel] Barenboim [West-East] Orchestra [of Israelis and Palestinians] and say, You should not only play Beethoven, but read Goethe! . .. Today we can. . . announce something great: the complete Goethe Divan is now available in English. . .. Martin Bidney has rendered not only the verses but also the prose, i.e., the
‘Notes and Essays for a Better Understanding.’ Obviously [selbstredend], here too he has done everything right.” Seibt notes that in the American version,Goethe says of the Qur’an that the “style is austere, grand, fearsome, and in places truly sublime.” Seibt constrasts Bidney’schoice of the accurate word “fearsome,” which, as he points out, means “fear-generating,” to the word chosen by polemicist Thilo Sarrazin, who misunderstood “furchtbar” as “terrible.”

Stanford Professor Katharina Mommsen, oneof the anonymous referees of my Goethe Divan,later allowed her comments to appear on the book jacket. She writes: “Bidney’s translations of the. . .Divan poems. . . render, for the firsttime, both form and content in a way that is faithful to the original. The poetical commentaries authored by. ..Bidney are of a stunning originality and. . . are composed entirely in the
spirit of Goethe’s own conception of world literature as a deeply felt interchange among peoples and cultures. I recommend this book most emphatically and with highest praise, in thehope that after nearly two hundred years it will help Goethe’s West-East Divan to make the breakthroughit deserves in the English-speaking world.”

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Regarding my East-West Poetry: A Western PoetResponds to Islamic Tradition in Sonnets, Hymns, and Songs (2010), Stanfordprofessor Mommsen, again an anonymous referee, allowed the following comment to appear: “Rarely has a book been sotimely as this one. . . . The double role of the author as researcher and poet benefits the reader of the 140 Islam-related lyrics. . . . And the poetry is on
such a high level of quality that it. . . motivates the reader to learn more.”

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About my Poetic Dialogue with Adam Mickiewicz (2007) Boris Dralyuk of UCLAwrites in Slavic and East EuropeanJournal 53.3 (2009): 502-3 that “often entire sonnets come across with agrace approaching the original’s. . . . [In “View of Mountains from the Kozlov Plain”] Bidney must be applauded for his fidelity. . . Bidney approaches his subject with professional care, and his notes reflect a broad engagement with
Romantic scholarship. He makesintriguing and often insightful use of various theoretical frameworks. . . Bidney’s collection offers reliable translations that frequently convey not only the
sense, but also the spirit of Mickiewicz’s lyric masterpiece. It is hard to deny Bidney’s dedication to thematerial, and harder yet to resist his infectious exuberance. Students of Polish literature, and thoseinterested in translation in general, will find this volume both useful and entertaining.”

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About my translations of SaulTchernikhovsky’s Lyrical Tales and Poemsof Jewish Life from the Russian versions of his friend VladislavKhodasevich (2006), Janet Tucker (University of Arkansas) writes in Slavic and East European Journal 51.3(2007): 627-8, “Martin Bidney,. . . amaster translator from Russian, has enriched our world with his touching and musical versions of Tchernikhovsky’s original [Hebrew] pieces, refracted further through the prism of Vladislav Khodasevich’s Russian versions. . . . Bidney
is to be congratulated for having given us such a marvelous and valuable book, a welcome addition to any library, and a boon for any individual who loves beauty and art.” Distinguished ProfessorMarilyn Gaddis Rose, founder of the Translation Research and Investigation Program at Binghamton University and editor of a SUNY Press series of translations of women writers, comments on the flyleaf of the book: “I was entranced. In a prosodic tour de force Bidney brings into English poetry Tchernikhovsky’s verse narratives of the fragile Jewish culture in early twentieth-century Russian villages. Itis bittersweet: lilting rhythms counterpointa doomed community.”