Edward Powys Mathers

Edward Powys Mathers (28 August, 1892 – 3 February, 1939) was an English translator and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced cryptic crosswords.

Powys Mathers was born in Forest Hill, London, the son of a newspaper proprietor. He was educated at Loretto and Trinity College, Oxford.

He was the editor with J. C. Mardrus of "The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night" (his English translation of the Mardrus adaptation appeared in 1923). He is known also for the translations "The Garden of Bright Waters: One Hundred and Twenty Asiatic Love Poems" (1920); and of the Kashmiri poet Bilhana in "Bilhana: Black Marigolds" (1919), a free interpretation in the tradition of Edward Fitzgerald. These are not scholarly works, and are in some cases based on intermediate versions in European languages. Some of his translations were set to music by Aaron Copland.

He was also a composer of cryptic crosswords for "The Observer" under the pseudonym "Torquemada" from 1926 until his death.

External links

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* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/bilhana/index.htm Black Marigolds at sacred-texts.com]
* [http://www.wenaus.com/poetry/gardenbrightwaters.html The Garden of Bright Waters]
* [http://home.freeuk.net/dharrison/ximenes/torq.htm Edward Powys Mathers as Torquemada]