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Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus · May 28, 2026

ANNOTATIONS—Part 3 of 3

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Julie Steiner · Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus

  1. ANNOTATIONS—ALPHA LISTS

    All Poems, BY TITLE || Translations, BY AUTHOR

  2. ANNOTATIONS—BY CHRONOLOGICAL SECTION:

    (2003–2015) || (2016–2025) || (2026– )

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Form: ballad-stanza (4/3) octaves. Rhyme scheme: abababab cdcdcdcd efefefef […] q’r’q’r’q’r’q’r’ (22 stanzas). Meter: alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter.

• • •

From the Spanish of Manuel Machado (Spain, 1874–1947)

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • Translation first published: Feb 7, 2026, in The Ekphrastic Review. Several subsequent revisions on Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus.

  • Spanish original: Manuel Machado published this poem in his 1911 ekphrastic collection Apolo, teatro pictórico (Apollo, Pictorial Drama).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Rhyme scheme: Shakespearean octave + Petrarchan sestet), abab cdcd efg efg.
    Meter: iambic pentameter, representing Spanish hendecasyllabic verse (endecasílabo).

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Manuel Machado (1874–1947) and his brother Antonio (1875–1939) were leading figures in the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of ’98.

  • 👤 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669) was still spelling his name “Rembrant” when he signed this 1632 painting.

IMAGES

In a dark room, Dr. Nicholaes Tulp conducts the dissection of an executed criminal, starting with the left arm. Seven men observe, some of them leaning in for a better view. The curve of a lighter area on the dark wall behind them suggests the top of a cranium, while the torso of the corpse suggests the jaw of that skull and one of the ruffs of an observer suggests an eye socket. A large open book is in the lower right corner of the painting, presumably an anatomy text.
“The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp” is the 1632 oil painting by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) whose tiny area of intense color inspired this poem. Source: Wikipedia Commons,
A dissection instrument lifts a portion of the exposed pink and red muscle tissue, orange fat, and white sinews of the corpse's left forearm, above the "R" in the corpse's navel.
Detail of Rembrandt’s “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholaes Tulp,” including the colorful area celebrated in the poem (as well as Rembrandt’s initial hidden in the corpse’s navel).

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 35. Form: ballade suprème. Rhyme scheme: AbA’ abA abA’ abA abA’ abA abA’ abAA’; A and A’ are repetends that rhyme with each other. Meter: iambic pentameter.

CONTEXT

Composite of images of Epstein victims with their mouths redacted in black; also, an image of a woman wearing an iron branks to keep her from speaking.
Images of Epstein victims as depicted in Feb. 8, 2026, Super Bowl ad pressuring then-Attorney General Pam Bondi to comply with the Epstein File Transparency Act that Congress had passed on November 19, 2025. Image of branks from an oil painting by John Willie, pseudonym for John Alexander Scott Coutts, for Bizarre, a sadomasochism magazine published 1946–1959. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Image compilation by Julie Steiner.

• • •

From the Spanish of José Diego (Puerto Rico, 1867–1918)

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Rhyme scheme: Petrarchan, abba abba cdc dcd. Meter: iambic pentameter, representing Spanish hendecasyllabic verse (endecasílabo).

CONTEXT

  • 👤 José de Diego (1867–1918) was a poet and diplomat who advocated for Puerto Rico’s independence, first from Spain and then from the United States.

ALLUSIONS

  • 📚 L1: Vade retro is a Latin phrase from exorcisms, quoting Jesus's rebuke to Peter at Mark 8:33, "Get thee behind me, Satan”; “retro” is also a pun on verse/reverse.

  • 📚 LL3–4: “el dios chiquito” or “the little bitty god” refers to Amor or Cupid; Apollo is the god associated with the lyre and lyric poetry.

  • 📚 L9: coplas are a style of Spanish-language poetry, consisting of four lines of no more than eight syllables. The rhyme scheme is either xaxb (romance, with all lines 8 syllables), xaxb (seguidilla, with lines of 7, 5, 7, and 5 syllables), or abba (redondilla, all lines 8 syllables).

• • •

From the French of Sully Prudhomme (France, 1839–1907)

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 14. Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: Petrarchan, abba abba ccd ede. Meter: iambic hexameter, representing French alexandrine lines. Note the strong cæsuras (pauses), either after the sixth syllable or after syllables four and eight.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 In 1901, Sully Prudhomme (France, 1839–1907) was awarded the first-ever Nobel Prize in Literature. He had pursued engineering studies until an eye ailment forced him to change careers. That engineering background informs the language of drafting, design, and prototypes in this sonnet, which was published in his posthumous collection Épaves (i.e., Flotsam and Jetsam) in 1908.

ALLUSIONS

  • In April 1820, the Venus de Milo was discovered by a Greek farmer on the island of Milos. It was purchased by a representative of the French ambassador, and installed in the Louvre Museum in 1821. Various efforts were made to restore missing parts before the current state was arrived at.

Venus de Milo (Greece) c. 150-124 BC. Louvre Museum, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.

• • •

This prose piece's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: Apr 1, 2026, in The Classical Outlook 101.1, pages 37–38. Forthcoming October 2027 in JSTOR. I have a limited number of PDF copies to share—please email me at julie.steiner.poet@gmail.com to request one.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Form: Brief prose essay introducing my translations of four cicada-themed poems.

• • •

Verse translation from the Greek of an unknown imitator of Anacreon (Ionia and Athens, ca. 100 BCE–500 CE)

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: Apr 1, 2026, in The Classical Outlook 101.1, pages 38–39. Forthcoming October 2027 in JSTOR. I have a limited number of PDF copies to share—please email me at julie.steiner.poet@gmail.com to request one.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 18. Form: couplets (with two triplets). Rhyme scheme: aabbbccddeeffggghh; the original is unrhymed. Meter: In this translation of Anacreontea 34, English stress-based iambic tetrameter (u – u – u – u –) approximates the eight-syllable, duration-based anacreontic meter (u u – u – u – x) of the unrhymed original.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Anacreon, honored in later centuries as one of the nine inventors of lyric poetry, was born in Ionia (now coastal Türkiye/Turkey) around 573 BCE, and died in Athens around 495 BCE. A tenth-century CE manuscript titled Anacreontea contains some sixty poems attributed to him, including this one. Since none of these are in Anacreon’s Ionic dialect, scholars now believe that the Anacreontea poems were written by various authors between the first century BCE and the sixth century CE, in imitation of Anacreon’s usual meters and themes (i.e., wine, sexual attraction, and song).

• • •

Verse translation from the French of Jean Aicard (France, 1848–1921)

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: Apr 1, 2026, in The Classical Outlook 101.1, pages 39–40. Forthcoming October 2027 in JSTOR. I have a limited number of PDF copies to share—please email me at julie.steiner.poet[at]gmail[dot]com to request one.

  • Original: This poem appeared with no title other than the number XXI in Jean Aicard's Poèmes de Provence: Les cigales, 1874.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 14. Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: couplets, aabbccddeeffgg. Meter: iambic hexameter, representing the French original's alexandrine lines.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Jean Aicard (1848–1921), who was elected to the Académie Française in 1909, wrote poetry in both French and Provençal / Occitan, in addition to writing novels and plays in French. He was born in the port city of Toulon in southeastern France, and in 1919 he was elected mayor of nearby Solliès-Ville, following a literary career that took him often to Marseilles and Paris. Aicard’s 1874 collection Poems of Provence: The Cicadas (Poèmes de Provence: Les cigales) contains original verse, including this sonnet in alexandrine couplets, as well as verse translations of cicada-themed poems from Greek and Provençal / Occitan.

• • •

From the French of Paul Arène (France and Mauritius, 1843–1896)

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: Apr 1, 2026, in The Classical Outlook 101.1, pages 40–41. Forthcoming October 2027 in JSTOR. I have a limited number of PDF copies to share—please email me at julie.steiner.poet@gmail.com to request one.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 10. Form: dizaine. Rhyme scheme: aabbacddcc. Meter: iambic tetrameter.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Paul Arène (1843-1896) of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region (the Alps of Upper Provence) wrote novels, poems and plays in French, as well as a volume of poetry in his native tongue, Provençal / Occitan. He was the founder and president of the Parisian chapter of the Félibrige, a society that promotes the Provençal / Occitan language and culture. One of the group’s symbols is a cicada.

• • •

From the Spanish of Salvador Rueda (Andalucía, Spain, 1857–1933)

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: Apr 1, 2026, in The Classical Outlook 101.1, pages 40–41. Forthcoming October 2027 in JSTOR. I have a limited number of PDF copies to share—please email me at julie.steiner.poet[at]gmail[dot]com to request one.

  • Original: This sonnet appeared in a 1908 animal-themed pamphlet entitled The Procession of Nature (La Procesión de la naturaleza).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 14. Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: Petrarchan, abba abba ccd eed. Meter: iambic pentameter, representing the original's Spanish endecasílabo (hendecasyllabic, eleven-syllable) lines.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Salvador Rueda (1857–1933) received seven nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature between 1909 and 1915. Born in a small village near Málaga on southeastern Spain’s Mediterranean coast, the poet, playwright, and novelist Rueda eventually traveled throughout Latin America and to the Philippines. Rueda’s collected poems contain forty mentions of cicadas, including three poems—including this one—actually titled “The Cicada” (“La cigarra”).

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: May 4, 2026, in Snakeskin 339 (Short Forms Special Issue).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 6. Form: biolet. Rhyme scheme: ABbaBA, with the capital letters indicating repetends. Meter: iambic dimeter.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: May 4, 2026, in Snakeskin 339 (Short Forms Special Issue).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 10. Form: tritina. Rhyme scheme: Identity rhymes in the order ABC CAB BCA, plus a one-line envoi containing A, B, and C, in that order. Meter: iambic pentameter.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: May 4, 2026, in Snakeskin 339 (Short Forms Special Issue).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 8. Form: triolet. Rhyme scheme: ABaBbaAB, with capital letters indicating repetends. Meter: iambic tetrameter.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 8. Form: couplets. Rhyme scheme: aa aa aa aa. Lines 3 and 7 use an identity rhyme. Meter: iambic dimeter.

ALLUSIONS

Les Oréades (The Oreads), a 1902 oil painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905). Now in the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain).

• • •

News roundup May 1–14, 2026

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: May 18, 2026, in Light’s Poems of the Week feature.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 19. Form: terzanelle. Rhyme scheme: standard (but with reversed repetends in quatrain) — ABA’ bCB cDC dED eFE fA’FA. Meter: iambic tetrameter, but with first iamb of each line headless (missing the first syllable), giving a trochaic feel.

ALLUSIONS

  • 📰 May 1 — Trump describes cognitive test he took: ‘They say, which one is the bear?’ — Yahoo News

    📰 May 1 — Poll: Trump’s Iran war reaches Iraq- and Vietnam-era disapproval levels — The Washington Post

    📰 May 2 — Trump tells Congress ceasefire means he does not need their approval for Iran war — BBC

    📰 May 2 — Trump says US Navy like ‘pirates’ while seizing a ship in Iranian blockade: US president says ‘we took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business’ — The Guardian

    📰 May 2 — Tucker Carlson cornered after denying Trump ‘Antichrist’ comment: The former Fox News host denied ever raising the idea—even when his own words were read back to him — The Daily Beast

    📰 May 4 — Trump threatens to blow Iran ‘off the face of the earth’ if it attacks US vessels — The Guardian

    📰 May 5 — White House insists war is over, even as missles fly — The New York Times

    🎬 May 6 — [Video discussing Trump’s repeated mentions of the animals on his cognitive tests.] — The Daily Show

    📰 May 7 — Trump posts chart bragging about how the Iran War is shorter (so far) than WWII or Vietnam — The Independent

    📰 May 10 — Could Tucker Carlson hijack the GOP and take the White House? — The Hill

    📰 May 11 — ‘Don Colossus’ statue of Trump not a ‘golden calf,’ pastor insists — USA Today

    📰 May 11 — Confused Trump, 79, answers simple question with bizarre ramble: The president went off on a tangent when asked about the rising costs of watching the NFL — The Daily Beast

    📰 May 11 — Trump Mobile quietly rewrote its fine print to say the gold Trump phone may never be made, a year after taking $100 deposits — Fortune

    📰 May 11 — Senate Republicans propose $1B for Trump’s ballroom security as Democrats pledge fight — Associated Press

    📰 May 12 — Trump posts late-night social media spree as Iran war drags on: President posted more than 50 times in three hours, attacking on Obama, NY Times and supreme court — The Guardian

    📰 May 13 — JD Vance insists Trump never said he doesn’t care about Americans: Unfortunately for the vice president, there’s video — The New Republic

    📰 May 14 — Critics warn of “grift” in potential DOJ settlement of Trump’s $10B IRS lawsuit — Truthout

    📰 May 14 — Expert warns Trump, 79, over brag he aced three cognitive tests: The president repeatedly insists he’s taking tests, but the number raises questions — The Daily Beast

  • 📚 “2 + 2 = 5” features prominently in George Orwell’s 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

• • •

From the Spanish of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexico, 1651–1695)

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 14. Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: Petrarchan, abba abba cdc dcd. Meter: iambic pentameter, representing Spanish endecasílabo (hendecasyllabic, eleven-syllable) lines.

ALLUSIONS

  • 👤 Contemporary admirers of the poetic and musical compositions of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Mexico, 1651–1695) nicknamed this Baroque writer of mixed Spanish and Indigenous Mexican heritage “The Tenth Muse” and “The Phoenix of America.” The title "sor” means "sister” and indicates that she had taken religious vows.

  • All extant portraits of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz are believed to be copies for which the original did, indeed, lose its battle against oblivion. Note the prominent words “FIEL COPIA” (“faithful copy”) in the image below.

  • The large, round "nun's shield" shown beneath her chin, bearing an image of the Annunciation, was part of the Hieronymite Order’s uniform.

Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz stands dressed in the white habit of the Hieronymite Order, with the "nun's shield" of the order, painted with the Annunciation, under her chin. A long black or brown panel hangs down the front of the habit from neck to floor. A long set of prayer beads hangs in a necklace down to her knees. Her right hand holds a quill pen, with which she is writing in a book on a red, rectangular pillar. Behind her is a bookshelf containing books and scientific glassware. A wimple of the same color as the panel, which widens at the shoulders, hides her hair.
The words on the red lectern declare this painting to be a “FIEL COPIA” (“faithful copy”) of an earlier portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651–1695) by Juan de Miranda (c.1667?-1714). Wikipedia Commons, Reuse of PD-Art photographs.(Source)
Close-up showing Sor Juana de la Cruz from the waist up.
Detail of portrait of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 40. Form: kyrielle. Rhyme scheme: aabB ccbB ddbB … jjbB. Meter: iambic tetrameter, but with the first iamb usually headless (missing its unstressed syllable), thus giving a trochaic effect.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: June 15, 2026, in Light (Spring 2026 Issue).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 16. Form: triolet series. Rhyme scheme: ABaAabAB CDcCcdCD EFeEefEF GHgGghGH, with capitals indicating repetends. Meter: iambic trimeter.

ALLUSIONS

  • Cassandra

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: June 15, 2026, in Light (Spring 2026 Issue).

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 21. Form: rondelet series. Rhyme scheme: AbAabbA, where the capital letters indicate repetends. Meter: lines of four and eight syllables, which I treat as iambic dimeter and tetrameter.

• • •

This poem's FULL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 8. Form: quatrain. Rhyme scheme: aabb. Meter: iambic tetrameter.

• • •

From the Italian of Giovan Battista Strozzi and Michelangelo Buonarroti;
answered in English by Julie Steiner

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 4. Form: quatrain. Rhyme scheme: abba. Meter: iambic pentameter, representing the Italian originals’ endecasillabo (11-syllable, hendecasyllabic) lines.

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) of Florence carved this figure of Night between 1526 and 1531, for the tomb for Giuliano di Lorenzo de’ Medici (1479-1516) in the Sagrestia Nuova of the Church of San Lorenzo, Florence.

  • 👤 The sculptor’s reply to the epigram by the Florentine noble and songwriter Giovan Battista Strozzi (1504–1571) implies criticism of the governance of the then-current duke of Florence, Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519–1574).

  • 🏺 In Greek and Roman mythology, Night was the mother of several offspring, including in some versions the twins Death and Sleep.

• • •

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: July 24, 2026, in Elsewhere: A Journal

• • •

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

  • FORM: • Sonnets

  • TOPICS: • Faith, Ethics, & Empathy • Music, Dance, & Drama

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: July 24, 2026, in Elsewhere: A Journal

• • •

This poem’s PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • First published: July 2026, Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest flipbook and video.

• • •

From the French of Maurice-Louis Faure (1850–1919)

This poem’s PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 14. Form: sonnet. Rhyme scheme: Sicilian — abababab ccdeed (but this poem has a stanza break after Line 7, instead of after Line 8.) Meter: alexandrine lines (rendered as iambic hexameter).

CONTEXT

  • 👤 Maurice-Louis Faure (France, 1850–1919) served in many elected and appointed political positions, including mayor of Saillans, member of the French Senate, and French Minister of Education. He composed poetry in his native Provençal / Occitan as well as in French, and he published a Provençal / Occitan version of this sonnet.

  • 👤 In 1911, the French version of “La mort de la cigale” was set to music by Jules Massenet (1842–1912).

• • •

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

  • FORM: Sonnets

  • TOPIC: Travel

• • •

This poem's PARTIAL TEXT appears in the following indices:

  • FORM: • Sapphic Stanzas

  • TOPICS: • Art & Architecture • Faith, Ethics, & Empathy

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  • Not yet published.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

  • Lines: 16. Form: 4 Sapphic stanzas. Rhyme scheme: unrhymed. Meter: Meter: four-line stanzas, each consisting of three 11-syllable (hendecasyllabic) lines called alcaics, followed by one 5-syllable line, called an adonic.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published 

        – u – x   – u u –   u – –
        – u – x   – u u –   u – –
        – u – x   – u u –   u – –
                      – u u –    –

  • KEY:
    – = syllable of long duration (in Greek/Latin); stressed syllable (in English)
    u = syllable of short duration (in Greek/Latin); unstressed syllable (in English)
    x = anceps (in Greek or Latin), which can be either long or short.

• • •

  1. ANNOTATIONS—ALPHA LISTS

    All Poems, BY TITLE || Translations, BY AUTHOR

  2. ANNOTATIONS—BY CHRONOLOGICAL SECTION:

    (2003–2015) || (2016–2025) || (2026– )

Read the original on offpisteonmountp.substack.com ↗

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