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A Note on this Site’s Presentation
Because I have only one working eye, and because that eye has a disease of the cornea, black text on a white background is painful for me to read (and often impossible). That’s why this site uses white text on a black background. But it is my intention to create a switch for users in order to allow you to read it with black on white if you prefer. Unfortunately, my to do list is massive, so I can’t provide an ETA.
What Will You Find Here?
Following is a description of what’s available on this website and what’s coming, along with links that can stand in for the menu system.
Poetry
Miscellany
I’ve written a lot of poetry in many styles since I decided in 1970 that poetry was my vocation. What’s posted here is almost more random than random. I used to do a lot of readings and had a certain amount of notariety at one time. Publishing just seemed like a waste of time, so I haven’t submitted a poem to a publication (except in response to a request for one from a publisher of Tanka) since the early 1980s, and that was at best a half-hearted attempt.
But Pennsylvania Bards Eastern PA Poetry Review 2026 has kindly accepted one of my poems. Publication is ecxpected in April 2026, at which point I’ll place a link to the journal here.
Narrative Sketches
The Narrative Sketches are gestating poetic narratives about a character named Rhosonny, a name that despite representing a dactyl probably won’t last (a nod to Milman Parry). I continue to call myself a poet, but give little to no evidence of actually being one.
Yet the narrative sketches are being transformed into a larger narrative that will significantly depart from what are presently available. My wife is adamant that I should begin with one particular episode. She’s probably right, as usual. In any case, I haven’t come up with a better opening than the episode she finds to be compelling.
Overall, I take heart from Ezra Pound’s transformation of his ur-Cantos into the first XXX Cantos and beyond.
Translations
Sanskrit
In addition to Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita Sarga 13 (as noted below), I’ll be translating subhaśitas, or epigrams, from the Sanskrit tradition, leaning fairly heavily on Bhartṛhari.
Ancient Greek
I’m currently working on stranslations of snippets from Homer, Bacchylides, Pindar, Sophocles, and other lyric, dramtic, iambic, and elegiac poets.
Tibetan
Thus far, I’ve only translated one complete Tibetan Tantric Sadhana, “Achieving the Mind of the Sublime Tārā” from the great Nyingma terton Nyala Pema Dundul, along with its lineage prayer writen by his famous student Terton Nyala Sogyal. I will post them here at some point.
Buddhism: Lojong
The Random Lojong Slogan Generator continues to work on desktop. Unfortunately, it isn’t doing so well on mobile anymore. I can’t just adjust the code. To make it work on mobile will require starting all over. So it isn’t even planned. But it still works on desktop.
Sanskrit: Apte’s Appendix A: Sanskrit Prosody
In 2021, With the help of serious students in A.M. Ruppel’s Elementary Sanskrit course at Yogic Studies, a clean, somewhat modernized version of Vaman Shivaram Apte “Appendix A: Sanskrit Prosody” from The Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary is posted on this site. It is still in progress, but I frequently consult what’s posted when working with Sanskrit meter. All of the information is there. Not all of it has been enhanced. Though far from perfect, I believe it’s the most useful format of Apte’s appendix available. View it here.
Sanskrit Buddhism: Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṃgīti (Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī in Metrical Sanskrit and with Music
You have open access on this site to a metrical scansion and a musical setting of Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti. Planned is a translation tailored specifically for chanting in English.
Classical Greek Thrasymachus Reading Course
This is a work in progress that provides tooltip descriptions for every word in the Thrasymachus Classical Grek reading course created by Cambridge professors C. W. E. Peckett and A. R. Munday in 1965.
Although only the first 17 lessons have complete tooltips, this online version is an approach that some find useful for acquiring reading fluency in Classical Greek.
Note: Although Thrasymachus is a Classical Greek reader, sometimes it includes epic, early koine, and biblical koine forms in the text.
Coming to This Site
Sanskrit Reader for Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita Sarga 13
I’ve created a Sanskrit reader with text, vocabulary, introduction, notes, and musical settings of Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita Sarga 13. The text is nearly complete, but is in its final round of editing. When it’s complete, I’ll make it available on this website.
This has been delayed by my current work in Ancient Greek Epic, Tragedy, and Ode. Ancient Greek was my first love, and I’m very happy working in it again.
Update March 2026: I’ve decided to publish the literal translation from the text outlined above before I complete work on the complete reader. It will be version 1.1, improved freom version 1.0 by remarks by Antonia Ruppel, but likely still won’t be finished as posted.
I’m told that my literal translation is more literary than the literary attempts of others. It’s possibly true. But I couldn’t have done mine without consulting theirs.
Ratna-guṇa-saṃcaya-gāthā (Verses on the Accumulation of Precious Qualities)
The Buddhist Sutra that Conze translated as “its verse summary,” “its” being the 8,000 line Prajñāpāramitā. But the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā is far more than just a “verse summary” of the Astasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.
For one thing, it preserves the oldest language of all extant Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras. This means that it’s likely closer to an “original” (to use a dirty word) because fewer changes have been rung on it than on the other extant sutras. The meter helped to preserve its form.
Soon, I’ll begin a new translation of this important sutra. Most of my work until now has been establishing a working Sanskrit text for myself. To my knowledge, the only available English translation contnues to be that by Conze as contained in his Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines.
History of English Prosody
This site used to be the only place, aside from university libraries and some big-city libraries, where you could find all three volumes of George Saintsbury’s History of English Prosody in both PDF and HTML. Several university English Lit profs used to send their students to my site. But once google digitized it, there was no need for it here, so I removed it. Now there’s even a Kindle version, but I don’t know its quality.
Commonplace Book
The Commonplace Book on this site is an experiment in creating a public commonplace book. So far, the experiment is a failure. But I haven’t given up yet.
Because I wasted so much time writing on social media my commonplace book hasn’t been much amended. This will now change. I’ve withdrawn from social media. Unfortunately, I’ve continued to neglect my commonplace book.
Memos
In addition to the Commonplace Book, I’ve added a section called “memos.” This will be my complete replacement for social media posts, but I haven’t been keeping it up, either. Working on upping my game.