Parabola's Fall 1995 issue:
Language and Meaning "In the beginning was the Word," but who can begin there? We have to begin as we can, from the other end of things, from where we are. Everything is translated in us: it is perhaps what we are for. --from "On Listening and the Word"
Cover: Image from
The Papyrus of Ani, c. 1250 B.C.E. From
The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1994).
In this issue:
- "In Light of Meaning: An interview with William Segal" - Speaking from the center
- "Speaking in Tongues" by Mordechai Beck - The meaning of Babel
- "The Word Made Flesh" by Tod Harri - The roots of written language
- "The Story of the Arrowmaker" by N. Scott Momaday - Transmitting the traditions of speech
- "Making a Language of Childhood" by Richard Lewis - Conversations with silence
- "The Weaver and the Blacksmith" by Amadou Hampv¢tv©Bv¢ - Language and craft
- "On Listening and the Word" by Ross Fuller - The teachings of the Desert Fathers
- "Mantras" by Mircea Eliade - The inner repetition of words
- "Verbum Ineffabilis" by Anita Doyle - Letting the world speak
- "The Quest for the Primal Word" by Ashok Gangadean - What is the origin of language?
- "Ambiguous Truth, True Ambiguities" by Roger Lipsey - Utterances of the Delphic oracle
- "The Demonic Book" by Martin Buber - The story of the Ar Vif
- "A Playwright Speaks" by Christopher Fry - A call for a theater of meaning
- "Word of Skill" by Mara Freeman - The art of Irish storytellers
- "The Language of the Birds" by Renv© Guv©non - Communications of the mystery
- "Discovering a Language" by Mary Stein - How the deaf speak
- "The Powers of the Word" by Renv© Daumal - Meaning in Hindu poetics
- "The Beauty of Innuendos" by Peggy V. Beck - The paradoxes of fools' language
- Poem: "Maybe" by Mary Oliver
Tangents - Reviews
- "Translation: The World of Tibetan Buddhism" by Thupten Jinpa - A bridge between two languages
Epicycles - Traditional stories from around the world
- "The Great Debate" / Jewish - retold by Peninnah Schram
- "The Boy Who Talked with Birds" / Mayan - from The Bird Who Cleans the World and Other Mayan Fables
- "The Talking Skull" / African - retold by Shanti Fader
- "Languages of Signs" / Hindu and Buddhist - retold by D. K. M. Kartha
- "How the Tenth Tribe Lost Its Words" / Jewish - from Adam's Soul