Book Description

"This is a book just the way I don't like them," the father of French Symbolism, Stéphane Mallarmé, informs the reader in his preface to Divagations: "scattered and with no architecture." On the heels of this caveat, Mallarmé's diverting, discursive, and gorgeously disordered 1897 masterpiece tumbles forth--and proves itself to be just the sort of book his readers like most.

The salmagundi of prose poems, prose-poetic musings, criticism, and reflections that is Divagations has long been considered a treasure trove by students of aesthetics and modern poetry. If Mallarmé captured the tone and very feel of fin-de-siècle Paris, he went on to captivate the minds of the greatest writers of the twentieth century--from Valéry and Eliot to Paul de Man and Jacques Derrida. This was the only book of prose he published in his lifetime and, in a new translation by Barbara Johnson, is now available for the first time in English as Mallarmé arranged it. The result is an entrancing work through which a notoriously difficult-to-translate voice shines in all of its languor and musicality.

Whether contemplating the poetry of Tennyson, the possibilities of language, a masturbating priest, or the transporting power of dance, Mallarmé remains a fascinating companion--charming, opinionated, and pedantic by turns. As an expression of the Symbolist movement and as a contribution to literary studies, Divagations is vitally important. But it is also, in Johnson's masterful translation, endlessly mesmerizing.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Man of the Hour
I don't always think that the editors of Bookforum pock the right reviewers for most of the books they cover, but when they assigned Wayne Koestenbaum to review Mallarme's DIVAGATIONS they struck gold, and it seems clear to me now that WK is a Mallarmean writer or rather, of the school of Mallarme, and yet, I would never have thought so until I started dipping into Barbara Johnson's fantastic translations here.The wordplay and the love of digression, the little paragraphs and the long, lithe sentences, like Gina Lollobrigida stretched out on the beach, everything about Johnson's Mallarme brings me back to the gifted critic and fiction writer of today.Then I was struck by hos contemporary the whole of Mallarme's DIV. enterprise seems.One piece, "Crisis of Verse," might have been written today, or at any rate the day before yesterday, and page after page of it, with its emphasis on the "white space" surrounding the word, anticipates Jabes, Barthes, all the most beautiful of 20th century critics."What caused a medium extent of words. under the gaze's comprehension, to take on definitive traits, surrounded by silence?"(The entire paragraph--you see, they're brief enough, in general, to fit inside fortune cookies.)

I like the one where Mallarme claims that, of all the French words for "shade," OMBRE is too opaque and TENEBRES is not very dark."What a disappointment, in front of the perversity that makes 'jour' and 'nuit,' contradictorily, sound dark in the former and light in the latter.Hope for a resplendent word glowing, or being snuffed out, inversely, so far as simple light-dark alternatives are concerned."What a way to put it!As an American boy growing up in France, I too often pondered the way French people seemed to think of "jour" as a dour, creepy sort of time, while the "nuit" was full of radiance and fun.Well, now I know a little bit more about their ways, and it's no more Nabokov for me.We used to weave complicated fantasies about a group of little fairy people who came out at twilight, the border between night and day just as it seems, in retrospect, like the Maginot Line between life and death.In our language, "light" and "life" are next to each other on the tongue at any rate, and it was an irate schoolmaster who broke up our crepuscular reveries, urging us harshly to take uup our cudgels and proceed home where Weetabix awaited us.I thought at first, before taking up Koestenbaum's review in BOOKFORUM, that I would have to be considerably keener on de Banville, Tailhade, Verlaine, Morisot et al (than I am) to get caught up with DIVAGATIONS, but the truth is, you don't have to know as much as you think you might to enjoy this book tremendously.You'll love the part where he theorizes that the slow, mournful syllables of "Lord Tennyson" account for the poet's popularity, and furthermore for "something serene, isolated, and complete; the proud withdrawal of physiognomy." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Charting The Depths Of A Man's Soul.
This offers in startling detail the great French poets works in their variety.From the beautiful & exquisite lyricism of "Herodiade" to the vivid cathartic experience of"Igitur" & finally to the innovative & experimental"Dice Thrown Never Will Annul Chance".This also contains ofcourse his impressionist masterpiece "The Afternoon Of AFaun".Together with the bizarre & self-revelatory letters &prose poems the work offers a good representation of this masterful man& poet. ... Read more

Book Description
'sense too definite cancels your indistinct literature'Stephane Mallarme was the most radically innovative of nineteenth-century poets. His writings, with their richly sensuous texture and air of slyly intangible mystery, perplexed or outraged many early readers; yet no writer has more profoundly influenced the course of modern poetry - in English as well as in French.In both form and content, his poems created new ways of conveying existential doubt, fragmentation, and discontinuity.This is the fullest collection of Mallarme's poetry ever published in English, and the only edition in any language that presents his Poesies in the last arrangement known to have been approved by the author.Apart from verse, it includes all the prose poems and the unique, unclassifiable Un Coup de des... (A Dice Throw...).The lucid, wide-ranging introduction and invaluable notes help an understanding of this astonishing poet's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

FINEST Mallarmé COLLECTION AVAILABLE...
Till now, collections of Mallarmé's works have been difficult to obtain; moreover, the translations were dicey.Here we have an inexpensively priced fine volume which features good translations with the original French facing for quick comparison.Excellent introductory essay as well.This is the best!

Especially excellent and of particular interest is the original double-page presentation of Mallarmé's magnum opus, A Throw of the Dice at Any Time Will Never Eliminate Chance.Superb! ... Read more

Book Description
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) is one of the giants of nineteenth-century French poetry. Leader of the Symbolist movement, he exerted a powerful influence on modern literature and thought, which can be traced in the works of Paul Valéry, W.B. Yeats, and Jacques Derrida. From his early twenties until the time of his death, Mallarmé produced poems of astonishing originality and beauty, many of which have become classics.
In the Collected Poems, Henry Weinfield brings the oeuvre of this European master to life for an English-speaking audience, essentially for the first time. All the poems that the author chose to retain are here, superbly rendered by Weinfield in a translation that comes remarkably close to Mallarmé's own voice. Weinfield conveys not simply the meaning but the spirit and music of the French originals, which appear en face.
Whether writing in verse or prose, or inventing an altogether new genre--as he did in the amazing "Coup de Dés"--Mallarmé was a poet of both supreme artistry and great difficulty. To illuminate Mallarmé's poetry for twentieth-century readers, Weinfield provides an extensive commentary that is itself an important work of criticism. He sets each poem in the context of the work as a whole and defines the poems' major symbols. Also included are an introduction and a bibliography.
Publication of this collection is a major literary event in the English-speaking world: here at last is the work of a major figure, masterfully translated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great poetry, unfortunate translation
Weinfeld makes all the mistakes you might expect in a translation of a poet only posthumously appreciated. That is, Weinfeld is the kind of guy who would have hated Mallarme in the late 19th Century, and likes him now because of what is old about his poetics, not what was/is innovative.

It seems to me that people who see "ahead of their time" poets (i.e., Rimbaud, Lautremont, Poe, to some extent Whitman, etc) as valuable exemplars of daring experimentalism generally produce fresher translations because they are more interested in keeping language fresh. Those who see the aforementioned poets as valuable reminders of the importance of constrained prosody, "high" diction, a centered author, or other notions that have since been obliterated, tend to produce translations that make radical poets sound like stuffy Englishmen in ascots drinking sherry.

No one can mess up "A Throw of the Dice...", but in general I'd reccomend the Daisy Aldan translation. i haven't read it all the way through, but in looking over some of the poems, it seems she makes fewer gross errors. For one, she doesn't bother to try to translate French rhyme to English rhyme, a task that usually requires a complete rearrangement of the poem by a much less talented poet than the original author.

The Poet...double-minded visionary...enchanting chanter...
This volume of COLLECTED POEMS by Stephane Mallarme
and translated with commentary by Henry Weinfield
is a joy and a treasure. For it contains Mallarme
poems from various of his collections: First Poems,
Satirical Parnassus, The Contemporary Parnassus,
Other Poems, Album Leaves, Street Songs, Several
Sonnets, Homages and Tombs, Other Poems and
Sonnets, Poems in Prose, and A Throw of the Dice.
The best appreciation of Mallarme is cited by
Henry Weinfield in his "Introduction" to this
volume.The comments were by Paul Valery (and
were about Mallarme): "This poet was the least
-primitive- of all poets, yet it came about that
by bringing words together in an unfamiliar, strangely
melodious, and as it were stupefying chant -- by the
musical splendor of his verse as well as by its
amazing richness -- he restored the most powerful
impression to be derived from primitive poetry: that
of the -magical formula-.An exquisite analysis of
his art must have led him toward a doctrine, and
something like a synthesis, of incantation."
This volume contains the texts of the poems in
French on the right-hand side of each page -- and
the translation in English on the left-hand side.
Mallarme is an extremely interesting poet, artist,
and human thinker/creator, for he has a spiritual
crisis in which he came away perceiving: "Yes, I
-know-, we are merely empty forms of matter, but
we are indeed sublime in having invented God and
our soul.So sublime, my friend, that I want to
gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists,
and yet launching itself madly into Dream, despite
its knowledge that Dream has no existence, extolling
the Soul and all the divine impresssion of that kind
which have collected within us from the beginning of
time and proclaiming, in the face of the Void, which
is truth, these glorious lies."Yet, even this, is
not precisely what Mallarme finally winds up doing...
for his is a "quest for Beauty and for a transcendent
Ideal and the tragic vision on which that quest is
based."
And all of this is enveloped in the most beautiful
sounds and images...charming and mystifying...for he
is also hermetic in his approach, "Everything that is
sacred and that wishes to remain so, must envelop
itself in mystery."
Here is a portion from "The Afternoon of a Faun" in
English -- then in French:
"...through the motionless and weary swoon/ Of
stifling heat that suffocates the morning,/ Save
from my flute, no waters murmuring/ In harmony flow
out into the groves;" -- "par l'immodible et lasse
pamoison/ Suffoquant de chaleurs le matin frais sil
lutte/ Ne murmure point d'eau que ne verse ma flute/
Au bosquet arrose d'accords;".
"...the ancient technique of verse -- for which I
retain a religious veneration and to which I atribute
the empire of passion and of dreams..."

If you want Mallarmé, this is the one to get.
This a beautiful edition of the COMPLETE poems of one of the most important French symbolist poets. If only all French poetry books could be printed in handsome, large-format bilingual editions like this! The translation is not even half-bad, with Weinfeld doing his best to maintain the actual flavor of Mallarmé's words. Best of all, the poems are translated in a faithful stylistic way-- prose poems STAY in prose, and the early-surrealist poem "Un Coup de Des" keeps its complex typesetting. The commentary is substantial and the poems are arranged in order of the books they appeared in, which makes it easier to follow the progression. Sometimes it seems that Mallarmé is left out of his rightful place in poetry, and this edition should help to alleviate that problem.

collected works by father of symbolism
Mallarme is a classic poet. His poetry made great impact on almost every important modern poet. He follow a road of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, the hard road. Paul Valery's work, for example, can not be even imagined without Mallarme's poems. This book contains all Mallarme's poetry. It is an essential collection for every poetry fan whose taste is not satisfied with mere cliched rhymes. Mallarme is also a paradigmatical figure of modern literature. He is the author of that famous statement: "The world exists in order to become a book." ... Read more

Book Description
A bilingual collection of 55 Stephane Mallarme poems. Translated from the French by Daisy Aldan with expositions. Mallarme (1842-1898), renowned French symbolist poet, is famous for his unique approach to poetry, considered today to be brilliant.

This new bilingual collection of 55 Stephane Mallarme poems, including one of his masterpieces, "Un Coup De Des" ("A Throw of the Dice"), gives readers a fresh new perspective of Mallarme's genius. Translator Dr. Daisy Aldan discovered and fell in love with Mallarme's work when she was told that her poetry was reminiscent of his. In 1956, she translated "Un Coup De Des" into English for the first time; the result was recognition of Dr. Aldan's unparalleled deep understanding and feeling for Mallarme. Now, more than 40 years later, she has blessed us with To Purify the Words of the Tribe, with expositions, which will surely lead to a deeper comprehension of the poetry of Stephane Mallarme. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A triumph of insight, sympathy, craft
Daisy Aldan was herself an extraordinary poet, but she was also a translator from several languages, a small-press publisher, a high school teacher (at the NYC High School of the Arts, with Harvey Fierstein and Gerard Malanga among her students), and a promoter of the poetry (and visual arts) of others, both before they were known and long after they had died.

Daisy did great service to Whitman and to Poe in her public lectures, but Mallarme was her favorite. She was a serious esotericist as well, and understood the inner meanings of his poems remarkably. Thus in translating them she did not worry at the impossible task of mirroring the surface, but went to core of his poems and brought them into English from that level. Her mother was an actress, and Daisy did not neglect the dramatic quality of Mallarme.

No translation could serve you better.

Mallarme's work can now be fully experienced in our language
Stephane Mallarme is often approached either with reverance duea god or with the disdain of ignorance. Happily, Daisy Aldan brings alifetime of study, her own opus of poetry and critical work, and a true, intimate bilingualism to a masterful translation of the major verse poems of Stephane Mallarme, TO PURIFY THE WORDS OF THE TRIBE, a book with facing French texts that contains her unsurpassed translation of "A Throw of the Dice" and illuminating expositions of each poem.

Aldan has sometimes described herself as a "former school teacher." The demystification of these often unread, misread, and misunderstood poems testify to her democratic approach as a true pedagogue and to the difficulties of Mallarme's very dense and crafted poems which are explicated with ease and generosity. The poetry of Mallarme is certainly not for a coven of priestly erudities; written during a nineteenth century of smokestacks and alienation brings the history of Western thought and symbolism into the NOW of the poet, into his life and vision.

Thanks to Daisy Aldan, Mallarme's work can now be fully experienced in our language, which is no mean feat. To carry forth his vision Mallarme had to struggle with the material sordidness of his age:

Let the dreary smokestacks ceaselessly pour smoke, and let a roving prison of soot Blot out in the horror of its dismal trains the sun dying in sulfur on the horizon

-The Sky is dead.-Towards you I hasten! Bestow, O matter, Oblivion of the cruel Ideal and of Sin Upon this martyr who comes to share the litter Where the contented herd of humans lies asleep

But he cannot succumb to the temptation to join the crowd, to escape his responsibility as a poet:

Where flee in this futile and perverse revolt? I am haunted! The Azure! The Azure! The Azure!

Aldan, to her credit, serves Mallarme by using her own poetic craft sparingly. In no way does she recreate the poems. Nor does Aldan aim to complicate matters by working out rhyme schemes that, in the end, would be extraneous and fail to do justice to the text. Mallarme is, perhaps the most concise and replete of poets and to be faithful to his content in an aesthetically satisfying way needs no rhyme or foot counting, a la francais. Aldan knows, well, when to stop.

"The Tomb of Edgar Poe" is an example of a perfectly clear translation without the distractions of second hand versification.Aldan has the capacity to keep very close to the original and the skill to move from one language to the other with the ease and rhythmic nuance that her talent as a poet makes possible:

Just as eternity transforms him at last unto Himself The Poet rouses with a naked sword, His age terrified at not having discerned That death was triumphant in that strange voice

They, like a Hydra; vile spasm on hearing the angel Once give a purer meaning to the words of the tribe Loudly proclaimed the sorcery drunk In the dishonored flow of some foul brew...

The famously difficult "Le Vierge, le Vivace et le Bel Aujourd'hui" also illustrates this capacity:

Will virginal, vibrant and beautiful today shatter with a blow of its rapturous wing this solid lost lake where beneath the frost haunts the transparent glacier of unrealized flights!

When Aldan paraphrases stanzas of this poem in the section devoted to exposition, she eschews brilliant interpretation and "the art of criticism." Her aim is simple: to make the poems comprehensible to the reading public. And she succeeds.

The book concludes with the innovative "A Throw of the Dice." Andre Gide called this "the most untranslatable poem in any language," but Daisy Aldan's translation, published in the fifties, was highly acclaimed and brought her fame in the French community.She was called a "Mallarmiste par excellence."

"The Throw of the Dice," a poem originally written on music paper, has varying typeface and the lines of the poem read from one page to the next, across the inner spine. Each type section (caps, italics, tiny print etc.) can be read as a separate poem but when everything is read as a whole, it is the main poem. Each page is, also, an ideogram, with visual appeal...sky, sea, bird, etc. In this poem Mallarme attempted an evolution of consciousness and the freeing of Mankind, which was his mission. Daisy Aldan assures that we experience this... ... Read more

Book Description
Never-before translated prose pieces by the father of the Symbolist movement and one of the most influential cultural figures of 19th-century France. This volume contains never-before translated prose selections--on language and aesthetics (grouped with a brief selection from his meditation The Book) as well as lighter reflections on life, fashion, and the performing arts. A number of sections are devoted to Mallarme's great magazine of wit and opinion (every page of which he wrote himself): Derniere Mode, or The Latest Fashion, which included commentary on clothing, education, and travel.These pieces were written under various pseudonyms of various genders: Madame du Ponty, Mademoiselle Satin, and "the redoubtable and unspecified IX." As the translator and editor of this volume Mary Ann Caws puts it: "It is Mallarme as inventor which this volume wants to celebrate, along with the rest of his genius." Mallarme's reflections on the English language, as well as his portraits of poets and artists (including Tennyson, Poe, and Manet) --and letters to such renowned figures as Valery, Debussy, and Paul Claudel--also contribute to making this an enticing volume, a collection of prose pieces highlighting the multiplicity of Mallarme's voices and the variety of his forms. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent introduction to Mallarme's life
Quite an enjoyable read, Millan's book also presents us with a neutral account of his subject's life, which makes this biography all the more interesting and stimulating. Although some may feel a few things are missing, such as details into Herodiade and parts of Mallarme's literary theory, or more examples of Mallarme's interactions with other major writers of his century apart from his closest friends, this biography deserves the attention of anyone considering taking focused interest in Mallarme, or XIXth century French poetry in general. ... Read more

Book Description
In its international and cross-cultural evolution, the modernist movement brought the most notable achievements in the poetry genre. Through their fragmented mode by semantic scrambling, the modernist poems seek to embody an indestructible unity of language and art. In order to elucidate the significance of that "essential" form in capitalistic times, 'A Flowering Word' applies C. S. Peirce's semiotic theory to the principal works of three contemporary writers: Stphane Mallarm's late sonnets, T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets, and the Japanese pre-feminist poet, Yosano Akiko's Tangled Hair. ... Read more