This fifth collection of poems, titled "Reflections," comprising one hundred poems of Dr. Ashok T. Chakravarthy, primarily concentrate on key universal issues of concern. The poems promote welfare-oriented universal concepts viz., universal peace and brotherhood, protection of environment, concern for nature, care for children rights, the priceless feelings for a mother and so on. The poet's quest for world peace is focused in quite a number of poems, and the feelings that peace remains an essential imperative to be inculcated in world citizens. Despite disappointments and conflicts still existing elsewhere, the poet takes it as his moral duty to promote his chosen concepts on environment protection, children welfare, nature and so on. The task to promote and protect universal culture does not lag behind. His thirst to contribute the best of poetry to safeguard universal values, ideologies, and religions is visible in his poems and stokes serene feelings in every reader. These recurring aspirations in the poet's thoughts and in particular the incessant longing to express them through poetry compositions is worth a rare phenomenon which ought to be recognized as a rare poetic talent. Most of the verses of Dr. Ashok T. Chakravarthy are literary kits that give good rhythm when tuned to music for enlivening the lyrical philosophy. The poet's pursuit to strengthen the ideals of peace in every world citizen, every nation and in every peace-yearning youth have carved a niche in the hearts of several citizens across the world. This particular volume invites a strong literary debate that will upsurge the advocacy for the changes it strives to uphold across global boundaries.

“The historian,” wrote E. L. Doctorow, “will tell you what happened. The novelist will tell you what it felt like.” This book sees Peter Hennessy and Robert Shepard combine both approaches with the art of the interviewer, a craft at once sensitive and probing. Reflections collects transcripts of the best interviews from the BBC Radio 4 series Reflections with Peter Hennessy, a show on which the British political elite have spoken candidly about their careers and the moments that came to define their political lives. Supplementing the interviews are short biographies and profiles of the interviewees, allowing readers a fuller picture of each speaker’s background and professional trajectory. This revealing book includes conversations with political heavyweights such as former prime minister John Major; former foreign secretaries Margaret Beckett, David Owen, and Jack Straw; Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock; Liberal Party leader David Steel; and chancellor of exchequer Nigel Lawson. In addition, Reflections presents interviews with leading women, including Shirley Williams and Clare Short, who spent years at the forefront of their parties in Westminster. The latest volume in the popular Haus Curiosities series, Reflections offers valuable insights from some of today’s most influential political figures.

This book presents and analyses twelve different writings from 19th century Italian literature on the topic of translation. With the exception of their original publication and some earlier reissues, these texts have never been republished in the 20th or 21st centuries and have remained in the shadows for about two centuries. Nevertheless, they provide a very important testimony to the lively interest in translation and the debate that characterized this specific period of Italian literary culture. The few international studies that deal with 19th century theoretical reflection on translation in Italy often focus only on some scattered contributions of a few influential writers (e.g. Leopardi and Foscolo). In this regard, this book could spark new investigations on the subject. While it is commonly thought that reflections on translation during the century analysed in this book came almost exclusively from Germany, France, and England, the debate on this topic was alive and well in Italy during that time and produced many interesting original ideas. Some of the topics discussed by the authors presented here, such as language hospitality, foreign translation, authorial translation, importance of translation in the receiving culture, among others, are presented in an original way that anticipates twentieth-century reflection. Above all, they demonstrate Italian intellectuals’ awareness of the observations on translation originating from other time periods and nations. Although studies on the theory of translation in Italy are often hoped for, they are still rare and undeveloped, and have yet to examine the texts published in this book. The academic awareness of the origins of translation studies in other countries, on the other hand, is more advanced. This book aims to be among these studies.

Samurai Zen brings together 100 of the rare riddles which represent the core spiritual discipline of Japan's ancient Samurai tradition. Dating from thirteenth-century records of Japan's Kamakura temples, and traditionally guarded with a reverent secrecy, they reflect the earliest manifestation of pure Zen in Japan. Created by Zen Masters for their warrior pupils, the Japanese Koans use incidents from everyday life - a broken tea-cup, a water-jar, a cloth - to bring the warrior pupils of the Samurai to the Zen realization. Their aim is to enable a widening of consciouness beyond the illusions of the limited self, and a joyful inspiration in life - a state that has been compared to being free under a blue sky after imprisonment.