Edward Powys Mathers (28 August 1892 – 3 February 1939) was an English

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

and poet, and also a pioneer of compiling advanced

cryptic crosswords A cryptic crossword is a crossword, crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth of Na ...

. Powys Mathers was born in Forest Hill, London, the son of Edward Peter Mathers, newspaper proprietor. He was educated at

Loretto School Loretto School, founded in 1827, is an independent boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 0 to 18. The campus occupies in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. History The school was founded by the Reverend Thomas Langhorne in 1827. L ...

and

Trinity College, Oxford (That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody) , named_for = The Holy Trinity , established = , sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge , president = Dame Hilary Boulding , location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH , coordinates ...

. He translated

J. C. Mardrus Joseph Charles Mardrus, otherwise known as "Jean-Charles Mardrus" (1868–1949), was a French physician, poet, and a noted translator. Today he is best known for his translation of the ''Thousand and One Nights'' from Arabic language, Arabic into ...

's French version of ''

One Thousand Nights and One Night ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

''. His English version of Mardrus appeared in 1923, and is known as Mardrus/Mathers. He also translated ''The Garden of Bright Waters: One Hundred and Twenty Asiatic Love Poems'' (1920); and the

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

poet

Bilhana Kavi Bilhana was an 11th-century Kashmiri poet. He is known for his love poem, the ''Caurapañcāśikā''. According to legend, Bilhana fell in love with the daughter of King Madanabhirama, Princess Yaminipurnatilaka, and had a secretive love af ...

in ''Bilhana: Black Marigolds'' (1919), a free interpretation in the tradition of Edward FitzGerald, quoted at length in

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

’s novel ''

Cannery Row Cannery Row is the waterfront street bordering the city of Pacific Grove, but officially in the New Monterey section of Monterey, California. It was the site of a number of now-defunct sardine canning factories. The last cannery closed in 19 ...

''. 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 Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

. He was also a composer of

cryptic crossword A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, includi ...

s for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' under the pseudonym " Torquemada" from 1926 until his death. He was the author of ''Crosswords for Riper Years'' (1925) and '' The Torquemada Puzzle Book'' (1934).''The Scotsman'', 6 February 1939, page 10. Under this pseudonym, he reviewed detective stories from 1934 to 1939. In 1919 he married Rosamond Crowdy (5 July 1886 – 7 June 1965), third daughter of Colonel H. Crowdy, RE. He died in his sleep at his home in Hampstead.''The Stage'', 9 February 1939, page 7.

References

External links

* * * *
Black Marigolds at sacred-texts.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathers, Edward Powys 1892 births 1939 deaths Crossword compilers Translators of One Thousand and One Nights Place of death missing People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century translators 20th-century English male writers