Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

*"David's Lament for Jonathan" by King David is possibly the earliest poem (it is said to date from 970 B.C. but is only verifiable from surviving written records from 300 in the Codex Vaticanus written in Greek). Poems of the temple prostitutes, *hierodouleia (which custom dates from before 586 B.C.), may be relevant. *Judaism has been strongly *homophobic and this in turn influenced *Christianity; Judaic *law strictly forbade homosexuality and emphasized marriage in order to propagate the faith. *Sodom and Gomorrah were cities said to have fallen due to homosexuality and this became a famous trope in *European poetry referring to homosexuality; the trope also occurred in Hebrew poetry.

Jewish scholarship, which has focused on the interpretation of the Tanach is very ancient (commentary on the Tanach which is an ancient exegetical tradition is called the Torah). *Allegorical and *hermetic interpretations in homosexual terms of the erotic collection of poems *The Song of Songs are possible (especially associated with the *Kabbala a secret underground interpretation of Judaism). There is also a long tradition of secret interpretations of the Tanach. A homosexual *parody in English exists of the Song of Songs by *William Alan Robinson (active 1976).

*Medieval Hebrew poets writing in Spain under the influence of Arabic models produced a rich corpus of gay poetry from 1000 to 1300, which has only been published and studied in any detail in the twentieth century. The poets were not edited until around 1850 and much material remains in *manuscript. Outstanding medieval poets who wrote on homosexual themes are *Samuel Ha-Nagid, *Solomom Ibn Gabirol, *Judah Ha-Levi, *Moses Ibn Ezra and *Isaac Ibn Mar Shaul. These poets were all heavily influenced by the Arabic poetry of Spain and homosexual tropes such as the *cupbearer, *wine drinking, the *faun and the *coming of the beard all appear in their work. The brilliant scholar and editor of some of these poets *Jefim Schirmann wrote the seminal article on homosexuality and poetry.

*Norman Roth has written outstanding articles on homosexuality and medieval poetry, as has Schirmann's pupil *Dan Pagis. With the revival of Hebrew in the late nineteenth century, many classsics were translated into Hebrew (e.g., *Shakespeare's Sonnets, *Whitman, the *Palatine Anthology). *Ilan Schoenfeld and *Mordechay Geldmann are two openly gay poets writing in Hebrew in Israel. The city of *Jerusalem, now the capital of Israel, has been a focus of Jewish life from King David who ruled there. See also *Jewish Poets.
The anthology She-lo ke-derekh ha-teva': homoseksu'alim, lesbiyotm shirah, prozah, ma'amarim, katavot compiled by Oren Kaner (Tel Aviv, 1994) is believed to contain some gay male poems (not sighted). It has been cataloged with the *subject heading "Homosexuality Literary Collections".
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. Encyclopedia Judaica: see "Poetry". New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: see "Hebrew Poetry". Gay Poetry Anthologies. Reid, Eternal Flame, volume 2, 427–35.

Hindi
Hindi, an *Indo-European language, is spoken in India and is a modern form of Sanskrit; it is one of the *Indic subgroup of the Indo-European family. Material of relevance dates from 800.
Hindi is the language of the Hindus, the largest religious group in India and is the most widely spoken language in India (Bengali is next in number of speakers in India). Written in the Devanagari alphabet, Hindi is is descended from Sanskrit and is close to Urdu (which is written in the Arabic script); Rajasthani is sometimes regarded as a dialect. Read the *Overview—Sanskrit entry first as this provides the background to Hindi poetry.

Hinduism is the religion of most Hindus and is itself a group of religions; see *Siva, *Krishna for gods to whom poems have been addressed. *Hymns are especially important. *Kabir is the most important poet for homoeroticism (see especially the translation by *Robert Bly). The *Bhakti movement which has produced homoerotic poetry is a major relevant religious movement within Hinduism.

The great *Romantic poet *Petöfi Sándor, though heterosexual, strongly bonded with other men, a recurring feature of other Hungarian poets (e.g., Tompa Mihaly and the one time actor Arany Janos; Vorsmarty Mihaly and Kisfaludy Karoly are another example). The influence of *Wilde is apparent in the work of *Babits Mihaly. Twentieth century poets have demonstrated a bizarre streak and homosexuality is suspected in some cases but has not been proven.

The decadent movement was especially strong in Hungary e.g., Toth Arpad and Babits Mihaly were influenced. The major poet *Attila Josef translated *Rimbaud and *Villon from French and *Esenin from Russian (Attila Josef later threw himself under a train; some have seen Hungarians as prone to suicide). *Laszlo Nagy translated *García Lorca. *Nadasdy Adam is an openly gay contemporary poet. *George Faludy is a *bisexual poet who has lived much of his life abroard. Hungarian is rich in translation: for instance, *Virgil's Eclogues (1789), *Whitman, *Auden. The National Library, Budapest, is the major library and a very fine library.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias. New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Everyman Companion to East European Literature, 529–32.

Irish language and English language poets from Ireland
Ireland, the island to the west of the island comprising England, Scotland and Wales in Great Britain, is divided into two parts: the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Ireland, which is a province of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Both Irish and English are spoken. Irish is sometimes called Irish Gaelic and sometimes loosely called *Gaelic, though Gaelic is actually the name for a group of languages in the *Indo-European language family, the most westerly group of this family. *Welsh and *Scots Gaelic are closely related languages: on these languages, see *Overview—English and Scots Gaelic. Poetry of relevance dates from 800.
*Dublin is the capital of the republic of Ireland and *Belfast is the capital of the province of Northern Ireland. The population of the Republic of Ireland is *Catholic and that of Northern Ireland is Catholic and Protestant. Both parts of Ireland have been harshly condemnatory of homosexuality and *Puritanism has had a terrible effect on Irish sexuality. Early poets dating from ca. 800 were not puritanical, however: see *Cormac Mac Airt Presiding at Tara (possibly ca. 800) and *"My love is no short year's sentence". The Celtic renaissance at the end of the nineteenth century set up a cult of Ireland which appeared in the work of the *decadent poet *Lionel Johnson.
Republic of Ireland. Male homosexual acts were only legalized in 1993. Catholicism has played a heavy hand in Irish life though after 1993 a vibrant gay movement emerged.
Irish. There is a rich poetic tradition (see Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics: "Irish Poetry"). The *Tain Bo Cuailinge is an important early work. *Homer's Iliad and The Rubaiyat of *Omar Khayyam have both been translated into Irish.

For English language poets see *Thomas Moore, *Brendan Behan. *Edmund Spenser,*Oscar Wilde. *W. B. Yeats and *James Joyce came from Ireland. There is an Irish gay journal, Identity, published in Dublin from 1984 which has published poetry. The Dublin journal Kottabos published poems by *Oscar Wilde and *Sigma (pseud.) 1877–81 (see Reade, Sexual Heretics, 145 and 154). *Green is the color of Ireland as well as being in the twentieth century a gay color; Oscar Wilde was famous for wearing a green carnation (the flower was artificially dyed).

For 2,000 years of Italian history the Catholic church has been the dominant factor in life and politics in Italy with most Popes (leaders of the church) coming from Italy. *Dante is regarded as the greatest Italian poet and came at the end of the *middle ages when the Church's influence was at its height; its theology was elaborated by *Saint Thomas Aquinas. Dante lived in *Florence but was exiled for periods of his life. A detailed study of *sodomy in the *medieval world of the Catholic Church in his most famous poem The Divine Comedy has been written by *Richard Kay. Dante's teacher *Brunetto Latini was apparently gay.

*Pastoral poetry dates from the Renaissance and was another homosexual focus of poetry. Much of this Renaissance material was written in opposition to the Church and a tradition of *pornography dates from this time (see *Pietro Aretino); Italian translations of the licentious *Anacreontea and *Meleager were also popular in the Renaissance. However it is apparent that forces in the church did not actively discourage the propagation of the ancient Greek and Ltin homosexual corpus outlined in the Greek and Latin overviews. *Michelangelo's *sonnets, vividly portraying his love for *Tommaso de' Cavalieri, are the outstanding poetic achievement of the Renaissance and compare to *Shakespeare's. *Benedetto Varchi was a homosexual poet who eulogised Michelaneglo at the great sculptor, painter and poet's funeral. Torquato Tasso seems to have been gay.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a tradition of *libertinism was strong in Italian literature, a tradition especially associated with the maritime empire centered on the city of *Venice. In 1782 *Giuspanio Graglia translated the *Palatine Anthology into Italian at a time when it had to be read in Latin in most countries.
It is now also possible to look for homosexuality in the poet regarded as the greatest Italian *Romantic poet, *Giacomo Leopardi, who lived with his friend *Antonio Ranieri for many years in *Florence and never married. In the late eighteenth century *Goethe visited Italy where he wrote homosexual poems in German in *Venice. The German Romantic gay poet *August von Platen died in *Sicily after a long stay; Platen was twice translated into Italian in the latter part of the nineteenth century. *Byron also visited Italy and wrote extensive poetry based on his life there (mostly dealing with heterosexual love affairs however, especially in Venice).

Male homosexual acts were legalized in Italy in 1889, following the unification of the nation (which formerly had been a number of city states, some, as already noted, under the control of the Catholic Church). However, little poetry has come to light for the nineteenth century. The *Decadent movement, which has been analyzed by the homosexual *Mario Praz, is represented by the work of *Gabriele D'Annunzio; in Italy it acted as the focus of opposition to the heavy hand of the church in moral issues. The German gay anthologist *Elisar von Kupffer, who lived in Florence for several years, wrote a book of poems in Italian.

The first and only gay anthology (on historical lines) *L'amicizia amorosa (Amorous friendship) was published in 1982. It was compiled by *Renzo Paris and *Antonio Veneziani. *Piero Lorenzoni compiled an anthology of erotic material including gay poems in 1976 after the advent of *gay liberation (which has had a strong effect in Italy despite the opposition of the Catholic Church). *Giovanni Dall'Orto has compiled the first gay Italian bibliography of works which only deals, however, with works from 1800 onwards.

Important gay poets translated into Italian include: the English poets *Whitman (first translated by *Luigi Gamberale in 1881), *W. H. Auden, *Allen Ginsberg, the German *Stefan George, the Portuguese *Fernando Pessoa, the Greek *Cavafy, the *Palatine Anthology (most recently translated by *Adolfo Magrini and *Filippo Montani) and the *Mousa Paidike (notably translated by Guido Paduano in 1989). An excellent selection of Italian poems in English is in Anthony Reid's anthology *The Eternal Flame (he lived in Italy for some time).
There are a large number of dialects of Italian in which poets have written homopoems e.g., Neapolitan (see *Nicola Capasso), Roman (see *Giuseppe Belli), Florentine (the standard spoken and written language from Dante on) and Venetian (see *Giorgio Baffo). Friulian, spoken north of Venice (see *Domenico Naldini, *Pasolini) is treated as a separate language. *Oral poems are likely in these languages, as well as in standard Italian. There are some 30 Italian dialects.

Italy has important gay *archives (see *Bologna, *Milan, *Rome, *Stefano Casi, *Massimo Consoli—whose archive is now in the National Library, Rome—and *Fondazione Sandro Penna). *Journals include *Sodoma and the popular monthly *Babilonia (which has had good cultural articles, especially by Giovanni Dall'Orto who has an outstanding *Internet site). The *European Gay Review had an Italian-born editor *Salvatore Santagati.

The bibliography compiled by *Iwata Jun'ichi, *Nanshoku Bunken Shoshi (compiled before 1944) was the first comprehensive homosexual bibliography in any known language and documents homosexuality in Japan from 780 to 1800; the author also laid the foundation of Japanese gay cultural history in a series of essays in Japanese. However, earlier work was done in German by *Ferdinand Karsch-Haack (active 1906) and *Friedrich Krauss. The *historical and social background has been increasingly explored in detail and Japan has one of the richest documented histories of homosexuality of any nation (much of this material has not been translated into English).

The *Heian period 794–1185, when the capital until 1868 was *Kyoto, saw the work of *Saigyo, a monk poet suspected of homosexuality. *Gozan literature flowered from this time. It was connected with *Buddhist temples where homosexuality flourished, helped by the belief that *Kobo Daishi (774–835), the founder of Japanese Buddhism, who came from China, was gay. *Shinto was the religion before Buddhism and continues to be practised. *Chigo Monogatori, tales of monks and boys with poems interspersed, date from this time (see *Maggie Childs). *Confucianism also exerted a strong influence on Japan. *Murasaki Shikibu's famous *prosimetrum novel The Tale of Genji, dating from 1000, includes at least one homosexual incident.

*Iwatsutsuji, published in 1676, and compiled by *Kitamura Kigin was the first Japanese gay anthology; it included poems but consists mainly of stories. *Saikaku's Great Mirror of Male Love (1687) was a famous gay classic based on *samurai traditions (its prose had poems scattered throughout). This outpouring of homosexual literature was influenced by Chinese *Ming and *Ch'ing erotica and the fact that scholars always looked to China, with its much older homosexual traditions, for inspiration.

The period from 1600 to 1868 was called the *Edo period, when the capital was Kyoto; *Hajime Shibayama has written a detailed study in Japanese of homosexuality in this period. *Senryu are satirical poems, many of which deal with homosexuality and date from this period. *Pleasure quarters especially date from this time; they included the *theater area of major cities. *Actors, *prostitutes and *transvestites, who were associated with the pleasure quarters, all had poems written to them or based on them if they were famous. Homosexual *songs (see also *Anonymous poems—Japanese) and *singing boys, who sang in tea houses, also existed. *Censorship operated, forcing material underground and forcing the emergence of a *pornography tradition.

The twentieth century. Following Japan's coming under United States influence in 1868 when the presence of the United States navy forced the country to open its borders to trade with the United States and Europe, the capital was moved to *Tokyo and male homosexuality was made a crime (see *Law —Japanese). An examination of the life of *Masaoka Shiki, who revived haiku in the late nineteenth century, shows homoerotic relationships with disciples as had occurred from Basho's time (Masaoka Shiki never married). The Buddhist poet *Miyazawa Kenji's poetry also reveals homoeroticism in some poems (he too remained single). The early twentieth century saw several translations of *Whitman (from 1919) as well as translations of poems of his disciples, *Edward Carpenter and *Horace Traubel; free verse made its appearance at this time.

In the contemporary period *Takahashi Mutsuo (translated into English by *Hiroaki Sato) is an outstanding poet of gay sexuality in the manner of *Allen Ginsberg. The gay novelist *Yukio Mishima—who committed suicide in 1970 in dramatic public circumstances with his male lover—wrote some poems. *Tanikawa Shuntaro, has written sixty books of poetry, is Japan's best known poet and has been nominated for the Nobel Prize. He wrote a poem in which homosexuality is granted equal status with heterosexuality, an attitude typical of China and Japan. *Ishii Tatsuhiko is a fine contemporary poet.

*Design and *illustration of books and the *calligraphy of a poet are regarded highly in Japan. The article "Homosexuality" in the Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, English version, 1983, by *Noguchi Takenori and *Paul Schalow (who has translated Saikaku) is a concise cultural survey. The Australian poet *Harold Stewart lived in Japan for many years as did the British gay poet *James Kirkup. *W. H. Auden has been translated into Japanese and *Arthur Waley has been an outstanding translator from Japanese to English.

The Korean Overview is also relevant because of the close contact between Japan and Korea for many centuries. Japan invaded Korea in the nineteenth century and occupied the country 1910–1945. For a concise overview of Japanese literature see The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Japan, edited by Richard Bowring and Peter Kornicki, 1993, pp. 122–49. On the language see the entry in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.