Search Results (22)

Romanian popular music has had a storied history across the last century and a half. Incorporating different influences at different times, today it boasts a wide range of both autochthonous and imported genres, such as traditional folk music, rock, rap, pop, and manele, to name a few. We aim to trace the linguistic differences between the lyrics of these genres using natural language processing and a computational linguistics approach by studying the prosodic, stylistic, syntactic, and sentiment-based features of each genre. For this purpose, we have crawled a dataset of ~14,000 Romanian songs from publicly available websites along with the user-provided genre labels, and characterized each song and each genre, respectively, with regard to these features, discussing similarities and differences. We improve on existing tools for Romanian language natural language processing by building a lexical analysis library well suited to song lyrics or poetry which encodes a set of 17 linguistic features. In addition, we build lexical analysis tools for profanity-based features and improve the SentiLex sentiment analysis library by manually rebalancing its lexemes to overcome the limitations introduced by it having been machine translated into Romanian. We estimate the accuracy gain using a benchmark Romanian sentiment analysis dataset and register a 25% increase in accuracy over the SentiLex baseline. The contribution is meant to describe the characteristics of the Romanian expression of autochthonous as well as international genres and provide technical support to researchers in natural language processing, musicology or the digital humanities in studying the lyrical content of Romanian music. We have released our data and code for research use. Full article

This article explores the voices of sailors across time, focusing on how song and prayer animate the nautical cult of St. Nicholas of Myra from the Middle Ages to the present. Drawing on hagiography, poetry, and music, it examines how medieval sources portray sailors’ cries to St. Nicholas during storms at sea, often depicting univocal, affective pleas that provoke divine response. These representations—especially in Latin sequences such as Congaudentes exultemus—highlight the cultural weight of the literal and metaphorical voice within miracle narratives. The article then bridges medieval and modern devotional soundscapes through nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnographic collections from Apulia, Italy, particularly through the work of folklorists Saverio La Sorsa and Alfredo Giovine. Their records of Barese sailors’ songs and prayers to St. Nicholas—still sung today—provide embodied counterpoints to the mediated voices of medieval texts. Through this transhistorical lens, I argue that voice operates as connective tissue in the devotional lives of seafarers: an expression of fear, faith, and communal identity. By amplifying sailors’ voices in text, song, and performance, both medieval and modern traditions construct a vivid aural archive that affirms the enduring relationship between St. Nicholas and those who navigate the dangers of the sea. Full article

The Cao’e-Jiaojiang-Oujiang River Basin possesses abundant vernacular architectural heritage with significant historical–cultural value. However, challenges like dispersed distribution and inconsistent conservation hinder its systematic protection and utilization within territorial spatial planning, necessitating a deeper understanding of its spatiotemporal patterns. Utilizing 570 identified heritage sites, this study employed ArcGIS spatial analysis (Kernel Density Estimation, Nearest Neighbor Index), correlation analysis with DEM data, and suitability analysis (Minimum Cumulative Resistance model, Gravity Model) to systematically examine spatial distribution characteristics, their evolution, and relationships with the geographical environment and historical context. Results revealed a distinct “four cores and three belts” spatial pattern. Temporally, distribution evolved from “discrete” (Song-Yuan) to “aggregated” (Ming-Qing) and then “diffused” (Modern era). Spatially, heritage showed density in plains, preference for low slopes, and settlement along waterways. Suitability analysis indicated higher corridor potential in the northern section (Cao’e-Jiaojiang) than the south (Oujiang), leading to the identification of a “Northern Segment (Shaoxing-Ningbo-Shengzhou-Taizhou)” and “Southern Segment (Wenzhou-Lishui)” corridor structure. This research provides a scientific basis for systematic conservation and integrated heritage corridor construction of vernacular architectural heritage in the basin, supporting Zhejiang’s Poetry Road Cultural Belt initiatives and cultural heritage protection within territorial spatial planning. Full article

Oral narratives play a crucial role in shaping the historical consciousness of Indigenous communities in Northeast India, where history writing is a relatively recent phenomenon. Among the Mizos, Nagas, Khasis, Kuki-Chins, and other Indigenous tribes of Northeast India, including the Bodos, the Garos, the Dimasas, or the Karbis of Assam, much of what is considered written history emerged during British colonial rule. Native historians later continued it in postcolonial India. However, written history, especially when based on fragmented colonial records, includes interpretive gaps. In such contexts, oral traditions provide complementary, and frequently, more authoritative frameworks rooted in cultural memory and collective transmission. Oral narratives, including ritual poetry, folk songs, myths, and folktales, serve as vital mediums for reconstructing the past. Scholars such as Jan Vansina view oral narratives as essential for understanding the histories of societies without written records, while Paul Thompson sees them as both a discovery and a recovery of cultural memory. Romila Thapar argues that narratives become indicative of perspectives and conditions in societies of the past, functioning as a palimpsest with multiple layers of meaning accruing over generations as they are recreated or reiterated over time. The folk narratives of the Mizos and Angami Nagas not only recount their origins and historical migrations, but also map significant geographical and cultural landmarks, such as Khezakheno and Lungterok in Nagaland, Rounglevaisuo in Manipur, and Chhinlung or Rih Dil on the Mizoram–Myanmar border. These narratives constitute a cultural understanding of the past, aligning with Greg Dening’s concept of “public knowledge of the past,” which is “culturally shared.” Additionally, as Linda Tuhiwai Smith posits, such stories, as embodiments of the past, and of socio-cultural practices of communities, create spaces of resistance and reappropriation of Indigenous identities even as they reiterate the marginalization of these communities. This paper deploys these ideas to examine how oral narratives can be used to decolonize grand narratives of history, enabling Indigenous peoples, such as the Mizos and the Angamis in North East India, to reaffirm their positionalities within the postcolonial nation. Full article

The Mysteries of Udolpho was published at a time when poetry and music were being redefined, along with the notions of imitation and expression. From a precedence of word over music, theorists, musicians and composers started reconsidering the hierarchy of arts, which led to a new appreciation of both sung music and instrumental music. Ann Radcliffe’s novel is replete with pleasing sounds and mysterious melodies, working both as part of her décor and general soundscape and as a key element of the narrative. Given the novel’s musical profusion and versatility, one may wonder how to adapt its musicality into actual music. This paper, therefore, endeavors to define the balance of imitation and expression in The Mysteries of Udolpho and questions the ability of other media, especially those relying on sounds, to adapt its musical richness. It first focuses on the novel’s inscription in the larger context of musical theory, before delving into the limits of language’s sound mimesis and its counteracting expressivity. The final part is a case study of three artworks inspired by Radcliffe’s novel: John Bray’s song “Soft as yon’s silver ray that sleeps”, Catherine Czerkawska’s radio dramatization The Mysteries of Udolpho, and Marc Morvan and Benjamin Jarry’s album Udolpho. Full article

The “Three Teachings Syncretism” (sanjiao heyi, 三教合一), i.e., the integration of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, represents an important religious philosophy in ancient China. This article aims to analyze how this ideology is presented and expressed directly in Song and Jin poetry, along with its modern value and significance. To achieve the research objectives, the paper isolates related poems from the Complete Song Poetry and Complete Liao Jin Poetry as the research objects. First, it organizes and classifies the relevant poems through the ways in which the idea of “Three Teachings Syncretism” is presented. Second, it examines the reasons behind this phenomenon, including the intellectualization of poetry and the Confucian academic background of Buddhist monks and Daoist priests. Thirdly, it explores the value and significance of this thought for modern China, showcasing the inherent diversity, inclusiveness, and harmony in Chinese culture. Full article

This paper assesses the relationship between the so-called “curses” on the Woman in Gen 3:16 in terms of themes (garden, tree, creation, marriage, procreation, and so on) and concludes that the late poetic text of the Song aims at a deliberate corrective to the negative view of gender relations in Genesis. The use of mashal, “to rule over” in Gen 3 is reassessed from the perspective of its use of the native genre designation of mashal in Wisdom Literature. There, it refers to similarities between two compared items. The direct reversal of God’s speech to the humans in Gen 3, where the woman will be ruled over by her man but still desire him, appears in the Song in the speeches of the Beloved: there she states categorically that the man is her beloved and belongs to her, while she belongs to him. The tactic of defamiliarization (a Russian literary concept) is used to juxtapose radically different views and destabilizes the notion of only one meaning for the words under consideration. In effect, reading two opposing themes together forges a new, more inclusive understanding of both. This paper concludes with a dramatic new rendering of the Song, “The Song I Sing Complete” with speech and motifs reassigned to the woman’s voice, foregrounding her remarks within the genre of love poetry, drawing on tropes found in lyrical poetry and the myth of Israel’s neighbors in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Full article

Theoretically, a poem can begin in any way. What does it mean that in practice, poems often begin in a particular way—that is, by returning to a fragment of some prior thing? We see this in the encore of John Milton’s opening to Lycidas (‘Yet once more, O ye laurels, and once more’); differently, we see this in the widely used convention of the poetic epigraph (for instance, T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ begins with six lines from Dante’s Inferno). While there is an established model for understanding the beginning as an act that invokes poetic precedent, this paper seeks to expose the beginning’s logic of return to a broader sense of language that is beyond the remit of poetic tradition as such. With a focus on the epigraph, this paper thinks about the everyday existence of poems and about how this existence relates to ordinary language, asking, how do these different modes of language function together? How does ordinary language collude in the creation of poetry? In its enactment of the passage of language from one mode of existence to another, the beginning of a poem might offer some answers to these questions. Full article

Âşıks, renowned for their adeptness at improvisational poetry, are viewed as the inheritors of certain shamanic functions within historical contexts. Originally, shamans assumed diverse roles encompassing poetry, medicine, and priesthood before social and religious transformations prompted a gradual shift of the poetic responsibilities, first to individuals termed ozan (bards) and later to âşık, beginning from the 15th to 16th centuries. Âşıks share parallels with shamans in their upbringing, developmental stages toward âşıklık (bardhood), and esteemed societal positions. Their reverence for deceased masters becomes evident in their artistic presentations, wherein they express homage to the memories, and consequently the spirits, of their masters by reciting the works of esteemed âşık masters, notably Köroğlu, during their performances. This practice, referred to as “usta malı söylemek” (the performance of the masters’ poems and folk songs) within the Turkish âşık tradition, represents an endeavor to establish a connection with the spirits of ancestors. The resemblance between the tradition of âşıks evolving within the master–apprentice dynamic and shamans invoking the spirits of departed ancestors, embarking on celestial and subterranean journeys empowered by them, and the âşıks’ homage to their masters’ spirits through recitations of their works, thereby sensing their masters’ influence by engaging with them, is striking. This study explores the extent to which contemporary âşıks consciously embrace this resemblance. To this end, a sample group of 34 âşıks residing in diverse regions of Türkiye was interviewed, and the acquired data were analyzed using the document analysis method. Accordingly, all the âşıks who participated in the study were nurtured within the tradition of the master–apprentice relationship akin to shamans. They diligently sought to evoke the spirits of their masters during their performances by reciting masters’ poems and songs, reminiscent of shamans invoking the spirits of deceased shaman ancestors through prayers resembling divine verses. Furthermore, while variations specific to different regions and age groups existed among these âşıks, it was observed that consciously reciting the poems of their masters elevated the masters’ spirits. Simultaneously, they harbored concerns about the potential harm that neglecting this practice might inflict upon the tradition, themselves, and their surroundings. Full article

This paper contextualizes Okudzhava’s song “And We to the Doorman” (AWD), initially marginal in the Soviet poetic mainstream. It explores its shifts in tone, irregular rhythms, colloquial language, and semi-criminal undertones. AWD’s structure, with uneven stanzas and no clear refrain, reveals underlying symmetry and recurring themes. The meter is predominantly iambic but varies. Unconventional verse endings and various rhyme schemes, including distant chains, characterize its prosody. The narrative touches on social cohesion and class conflict. The style reflects a challenging attitude toward privilege, employing rhetorical devices and indirect threats. The melody aligns with thematic elements, featuring repetitive patterns and a spoken quality. Semantically, AWD presents an ambiguous message on class struggle and moral issues. In sum, this analysis uncovers Okudzhava’s song’s formal complexities, thematic nuances, and stylistic innovations. Full article

This paper aims to decode medieval theology from the vantage point of ancient Chinese poetry, employing a cross-textual methodology that encourages a fusion of horizons. It highlights Saint Bernard’s profound and influential theological exegesis of the “Song of Songs”, particularly his comparison of the divine–human relationship to the conjugal bond. The present study posits that readers from Chinese culture can gain access to Saint Bernard’s mystical theology through the sentiment of love, as portrayed in the Book of Odes (Shijing). Initially addressing love as a core human sentiment, this study progresses by juxtaposing the representations of love in the Book of Odes with those in the “Song of Songs”. This comparative analysis culminates in an exploration of Saint Bernard’s theological perspectives, illuminated through these analogous depictions of love. The results affirm that engaging with Saint Bernard’s discourse on love via the Book of Odes is not only feasible but also instrumental in dispelling widespread misconceptions. Full article

The sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions (and, but), referred to in the literature as SIA and SIB, have been well established as discourse markers beyond their syntactic function as connectors of related propositions. In reference to the proof-editing process of The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran’s most internationally acclaimed work in English, records show that Gibran tends to “overuse” “Ands” and “Buts”. In this context, this study traces Gibran’s use of sentence-initial coordinating conjunctions (and, but) in The Prophet and his seven other works in English, attempting to determine whether his use of SIA and SIB can be stylistically characterized. In this context, this study adopts a corpus stylistics approach to look into the frequency of SIA and SIB across Gibran’s English works. The findings of this study reveal that Gibran’s frequent use of SIA and SIB is statistically “meaningful” and his use of SIA and SIB is a “conscious” act of discourse marking, similar in nature to their “unique” use in King James Bible and William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience (Gibran’s most influential and inspirational literary sources). In addition, the collocational networks for both SIA and SIB display that Gibran depends heavily on the coordinating conjunction (and) to verbalize his arguments and points of view, shifting his prose-poetry as close as possible to “orality”—a biblical stylistic feature par excellence Full article

This paper argues that as poetics in the Song Dynasty developed, the thinking mode and methods of written expression in Chan Buddhism provided a theoretical reference and creative practical experience for the formation of poetic theories. This point is particularly evident in the formation of the “flexible method”, which was a key theory in poetics of the Song Dynasty. The theory comprises three layers of meaning: it advocates respecting forms, changing the meaning of those forms, and retaining the inherent grace of the forms through a natural and fluent syntax and rhetoric of “defamiliarization”. This theory was highly mature in the writing of Lv Benzhong of the Southern Song Dynasty. Xuedou Chongxian (980–1052), a sixth-generation Chan Buddhist at Xuedou Temple, made a vital contribution to its development, which is highlighted by studying the “Hundred Classic Eulogies”. Xuedou Chongxian initially constructed the connotation and system of the theory of the “flexible method” in both theoretical and practical aspects. His theory of poetics is rooted in the ways of thinking and cultivating of the Yunmen sect. He incorporated his dual identity as a senior monk of the Yunmen School and a poet. He inherited Guanxiu’s view of poetry and the Chan concept of Shitou Xiqian and Zhimen Guangzuo, which greatly impacted the literati of the Northern Song Dynasty and provided a conceptual basis for maturing and improving the “flexible method” theory. Therefore, Xuedou Chongxian’s value in the theoretical construction of the “flexible method” should not be ignored. Full article

Dohās, vajragīti, and caryāgīti are key terms associated with the poetic writings of the Mahāsiddhas. This study focuses on Apabhraṃśa dohās, their commentaries, Tibetan translations, and collections containing them, shedding light on previously neglected aspects of this text type. By investigating the historical and original contexts of these three terms and comparing them to their later applications in traditional contexts and academia, this paper argues against the prevailing notion that they are genetically distinct and that this text type is primarily defined by orality and spontaneity. Consequently, it challenges the romanticized myth of certain origin narratives, such as student–teacher encounters. Instead, this brief presentation demonstrates that the often-repeated stereotypical definitions of these terms should be largely rejected, as they are merely different labels for the same text type with blurred and ill-defined subcategories. The analysis of primary sources reveals that various facets, e.g., compilation (an important but neglected aspect), go beyond the strongly emphasized oral component of this text type, thereby leading to the inaccurate definitions of the terms. In conclusion, intertextuality, compilation, and assigned authorship are crucial yet overlooked elements in defining the text type and understanding its function. Full article

The loss and damage transpiring because of anthropogenic climate change is a confronting reality, especially for frontline communities of the Pacific Islands. Understandings and assessments of loss and damage often fall short on coverage of intangible and noneconomic dimensions, such as losses to culture, place, Indigenous knowledge, and biodiversity, among others. In responding to this knowledge deficit, this paper turns its attention to the burgeoning Pacifika arts community because creative and cultural expressions have been critical avenues for sharing experiences, navigating loss, and exploring grief throughout history, including in the context of climate-driven loss. We analyse a series of Pacifika spoken, written, and visual items (n = 44), including visual art, poetry, song, film, documentary, and theatre, to identify the key categories and themes of noneconomic loss and damage (NELD) that emerge, better understand their nature, indicate their levels of prominence, reflect on them in relation to existing NELD frameworks and categories, and identify strategies for processing and coping. Our findings add to existing understandings of losses to territory, cultural heritage, human mobility, and health while also putting forward identity and agency as additional prominent NELD types. We emphasise that loss occurs within an interconnected and complex system that is centred on the critical relationships between people and their land, and greater attention must be paid to this interconnectivity as the foundation of identity and wellbeing. These perspectives enable stakeholders to better integrate experiences of NELD into future planning efforts so that they are not skewed (i.e., considering only economic loss and damage) or discounting people’s experiences. This will be critical for holistically building greater resilience and for communication in international fora and climate negotiations. Full article