Book Description
The influential French poet, Symbolist leader, and Decadent Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was recognized as a groundbreaking writer even in his own lifetime--his stylistic innovations brought a new musicality to French poetry and paved the way for free verse and other twentieth-century techniques and experiments. This selection of poems, with the French text en face, provides a comprehensive selection of Verlaine's verse together with a lucid introduction illuminating his life and works. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (4)

Too Much Poetic License
A literal translation of Verlaine from the French would be leaden. (But if you want one that approaches just that, see the Oxford Classics version .) All the same, Shapiro strays too far for me from what Verlaine wrote.These translations are often gorgeous, and sometimes a tad florid. I would have liked to see Shapiro translate more closely to the orginal while maintaining the grace he attempts, and even frequently reaches, here.(Is this possible in translations?)However beautiful, this is not Verlaine.

The notes at book's end , expaining some of the translator's decitions and choices, are quite interesting and worth reading, even though I don't always agree with his approach. ...

Shapiro is the best!
The reader below from Puero Rico could simply not be more wrong--no less a poet than Seamus Heaney has praised quite highly the work of Norman Shapiro, who is universally recognized as one of our premiere translators of French literature, easily on a level with Richard Howard and Richard Wilbur and W.S. Merwin.Mr. Shapiro has won a National Book Award for his work, and his four volumes (thus far) of La Fontaine are superb, dazzling!

So, ignore the ill-informed reviewer below and proceed with confidence!And check out "Fifty Fables," "Fifty More Fables," "Once Again, La Fontaine," and "La Fontaine's Bawdy"--all translated by Shapiro--a heroic endeavor, and as good as French literature gets in English!!!

Great Poet, Less Than Great Translator.
The downside to translation is that we always loose, in some amount, something of what the author(poet)is expressing.The translator did not try to maintain Velaine's essence...he tried to create a whole new poem from what he understood Verlaine is expressing.

French Poetry At Its Best
When translating poetry it is important to convey the exact feeling that one recieves from reading the document in its native language. That's why this book is so great, it tackles the task of translation and pulls it offbeautifully. If you are a fan of french poetry then this is just the bookfor you! ... Read more

Book Description
`Verlaine, possessed by the madnesses of love, brimming over with desires and prayers, the rebel railing against the complacent platitudes of society, of love, of language'. Jean RousselotVerlaine ranks alongside Baudelaire, Mallarme, and Rimbaud as one of the most outstanding poets of late nineteenth-century France whose work is associated with the early Symbolists, the Decadents, and the Parnassiens. Remarkable not only for his delicacy and exquisitely crafted verse, Verlaine is also the poet of strong emotions and appetites, with an unrivalled gift for the sheer music of poetry, and an inventive approach to its technique.This bilingual edition provides the most comprehensive selection of his poetry yet, offering some 170 poems in lively and fresh translations and providing a lucid introduction which illuminates Verlaine's poetic form within the context of French Impressionism and the poetry of sensation. Parallex text ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Fascinating Meditation on the Relevance of Verlane
As often is the case with general volumes of poetry, or books available in many editions, a good reveiw necessarily consists of two parts: first a review of the original material, and then a review of the specific edition.

For the original material, Verlaine is an amazing poet. He represents possibly the first and greatest lyrical poet to be initiated into modernity. His lyricism is not baroque, whimsical, or decadent - it is haunted and beautifull. It is like the music of Chopin (as it could be said that Rimbaud's is closer to that of Liszt). He represents a unique tract among the many poetic styles gestating in a Paris newly thrust into what we call modernity. There was the cynical and disolute Baudelaire, the ribald and frenzied Rimbaud, and then the melancholy and lyrical Verlaine. These three writers could easily be seen as a trifecta of greatness: they together represent the principal moods that have dominated literature to follow in their tracks.

The editions of a poets works, however, should certainly be considered independent of the poems themselves. Translation and selection of poems from such a broad body of work is both highly prejudicial, and (perhaps as a result) also creates a unique beauty in each seperate edition.

This edition, though, is a stand out among others available. First, because it probably is the largest English collection of Verlaines work (170 poems or so) and second because it's assembly, tranlations, and annotation reveal a very profound thoughtfullness on the part of the translator and editor, Martin Sorrell.

Most selections of Verlaines work are contrite and myopic, pick only certain early poems which have been translated and anthologized ad nauseum with no greater depth than that of a poem-a-day desk calendar or the litterary equivalent of easy listening music. In contrast, Sorrell's presentation is symphonic. The poems he has selected are true to the life of the poet - complete with ragged edges and blissfull moments.

How could one appreciate Verlaine's true genius if he is only shown in an artificial, sacrine, sanatized way? Sorrell boldly includes a large amount of poems from Verlaine's later work, largely disparaged by other critics, and provides very thoughtfull annotations about the inspirations, impacts, and ultimate relevance of each poem.

In this way Sorrell has created a very thoughtfull meditation on the life and work of Verlaine, and shares it with his audience so even a layman can appreciate it.

There is also a parallel French Text, which I find indespensible. Although not all of the translations are done the same way I would, diversity is what makes literature beautifull, and I am very interested to see the relationship between Sorrell's scholarship of Verlaine's life and the way in which he translates Verlaine's verses. This is a valuable tool not found if you were to simply read a French edition of Verlaine's poems or preuse an anthology.

In the end, this book is a excellent illustration of why translations and collections can be usefull even to people who have already read Verlaine in French.

Brilliant, but not always
Verlaine is perhaps my favourite poet--many of his poems are exceptionally beautiful, salacious even. However he wrote prolifically, and as is often the case with prolific artists, his work is of uneven quality. Nevertheless, at his best, Paul Verlaine's poetry is among the most remarkable that I've ever read. I highly recommend this collection.

Buy it for the bonkers annotation.
'The reader seems to have some disaster of far vaster import than he can fathom.That is the mysterious effect of Mallarme's poetry.One gets a strange emotional effect past analysis'.So declares translator C.F. MacIntyre of a typically impenetrable Mallarme sonnet.Unfortunately, it's an effect the non-French reader will never experience.In translation, somebody like Robert Frost once said, what is lost is the poetry, and no other writer exemplifies this truism more clearly than Mallarme.Most translations will at least yield some sort of broad narrative or imagistic or intellectual sense.Mallarme's self-contained, bookish, exquisitely artificial poetry (Borges was a fan) exists on a plane beyond sense.It is an intensely intricate agglomeration of sounds, forms, distorted grammar, codes and riddles whose 'meaning' is not literal.Mallarme is usually compared to a costumier, jeweller or musician, such is this artisan's devotion to the poem as crafted object.The only real way to translate Mallarme is not to find literal English equivalents for his words as printed, but to find new word-constructions with sounds and resonances that transmute the originals' spirit, rather than sense.But if the translator had that kind of gift, s/he wouldn't be wasting it on Mallarme translations.Despite MacIntyre's best efforts, then, literal Mallarme in English sounds like the worst kind of sub-decadent pot-pourri, like the imitations of French Symbolism Oscar Wilde churned out in his youth.[...]This does not mean the volume is useless.French students struggling with the originals can use the translations as a kind of grammatical glossary, and will find MacIntyre's synopses and explanatory notes, with background and critical infomration, helpful, if dated.The casual reader, however, will find much to enjoy.After a few poems (including the famous 'Herodiade' and 'L'apres-mide d'un faune'), I gave up struggling with Mallarme, and gave into the pleasures of MacIntyre's annotations.A real-life Charles Kinbote, he doesn't even seem to like Mallarme very much: one poem 'is built up of so much nothing, like a fragile pastry of whipped cream.It is artful in the worst sense of the word... He should have had a stern editor! (As I have)'; 'Line 4 is particularly good, [a critic] insists, because it suppresses the classic caesura!I don't think many readers would suffer if the whole sonnet had been suppressed'.He refers to Mallarme's art as a 'dead end', execrates 'his miserably bungled up French', and cheerfully admits that he doesn't really understand the poems!So what qualified him to translate them?!A delectable egotism blows through the pages, from its overheated, homoerotic dedication, and the unwarranted, though very welcome, detours into autobiography and war memories, to the Olympian sneers at previous commentators.Published in sexually unliberated 1957, MacIntyre is forced to euphemise Mallarme's detailed and relentless erotics, which leads to some splendid tongue-twisting; the frequent suspicion that MacIntyre himself misses the point of a poem like 'What silk...' ('the mouth will not be sure/in its bite of finding savor,/unless he, your princely lover,/breathe out, diamond-like, in your/considerable tuft the cry/of Glories stifled as they die'), which he says is about a woman brushing her hair at the mirror (!), is quashed by his mocking one persistently misreading critic: 'Really now.I wish I still had Herr Wais's niaive innocence.I really do'.Barmy, endearing and delightful.

A Case of Confusion
[...] At any rate, for those who are notfamiliar with the movement, I would suggest reading, in this order:Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine and Mallarme, as that is the sequence inwhich they came to the fore of French Lit (though you could make the casethat Veralaine and Rimbaud were contemporaneous, I would suggest thatVerlaine's most important work came after his interchange with Rimbaud).Since these are the most influential French poets of the modern era, andhad an impact on every modern "movement" that occured inliterature thereafter, you can not go wrong with any of them. There arethose who contend that poetry especially is lost in translation. I wouldagree, yet all these poets are represented by "facing" textsthese days. The original text is mirrored by the translation on theopposite page. Oxford and Penguin both are good choices. The translatorsare uniformally well-educated and erudite, the printing is excellent andthe overall scholarhip, including introductions, is top-notch. You can't gowrong with these editions. ... Read more

Book Description
Exquisite triflers and deceivers rare, Tender of heart, but little tied by vows, Deliciously we dally 'neath the boughs, And playfully the lovers plague the fair.Download Description
Exquisite triflers and deceivers rare, Tender of heart, but little tied by vows, Deliciously we dally 'neath the boughs, And playfully the lovers plague the fair. ... Read more

Book Description

Assembled from articles published in French journals, the full version of The Cursed Poets (Les Poetes maudits) was first published in 1888.. Rimbaud, the boy with whom Verlaine had had his infamous affair, Mallarme, and Verlaine himself need little introduction; figures such as Tristan Corbiere and Jules Laforge, a major influence on the poetry of T.S. Eliot, were lesser known at the time, but are now recognized as major figures. Marceline Desbordes-Valmore is still unknown outside the francophone world, though Goya painted her portrait and Stefan Zweig wrote a study of her. Villiers de L'Isle-Adam is an ultimate Symbolist, after whose drama Edmund Wilson titled his Axel's Castle. The translator lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews (1)

a peek into poems and poets in Verlaine's life
I enjoyed this book as much for the rich poetry as for the authentic glimpse it gives of the poets who believed in art for art's sake. This bilingual (French and English) book will deeply interest readers who love the work of the early Symbolists, the Decadents and the Parnassiens.If French Impressionism with its sensuous tapestry of images does not tempt you, there are other reasons to dip into this book.There is historical background to the words introducing Verlaine's friends (the so called `cursed poets' whom he promoted via this book).The book made me look up more on each poet (some of them like Rimbaud and Mallarme are famous; the others did not achieve much fame).Reading the book one gets hints of the inter-relationships (sometimes scandalous liaisons) between them. I suggest read the book first and then follow its clues further for the full human interest.
What do poets pick up from their own verse to showcase their best talent to other poets? This is a book truly for, by and of poets. For non-poets like me, this book reveals the need of the poets to defend their work and their reputation. We read of Verlaine's dissatisfaction of being labeled `decadent'.We see the skilful use of words when he wants to highlight a poet's virtues. He does so subtly for greater effect.We enjoy the elaborate eulogies, which are rich in adjectives, too.
If you love French Impressionism- you will enjoy each page. If you do not know French- this is the chance to get as close as possible in English to the real thing.If you do know French- you will enjoy the chance to compare the words and images in the two languages.
The book is ideally sized (it fits the palm). I recommend the book as a romantic gift as well as one for serious literary pursuits.
... Read more

Book Description
Convaincu que l'Étude du plaisir de l'Écriture reste particuliÈre, tandis que celle du lecteur permet une comprÉhension plus gÉnÉrale du phÉnomÈne poÉtique, Michel Malherbe, conscient que les textes analysÉs dans cet ouvrage sont le produit de la volontÉ dÉlibÉrÉe d'un auteur (Paul Verlaine), a procÉdÉ À l'analyse euphonique des Romances sans paroles afin de mieux comprendre le plaisir À les lire. Ce plaisir est avant tout euphonique; en cela, cette approche de la poÉsie est particuliÈre puisqu'elle aborde le texte sous son aspect sonore, dont la structuration rejaillit sur une meilleure comprÉhension du sens. Pour procÉder À cette analyse euphonique, il fallait utiliser un outil valide et fiable. Les recherches dans ce domaine de la pratique des sonoritÉs du texte poÉtique ne sont guÈre abondantes; en revanche, les mÉthodes proposÉes reposent sur des principes divergents. Le premier chapitre prÉsente trois mÉthodes Émanant respectivement de Delas et Filliolet, de Chausserie-LaprÉe et de Gauthier. Leur critique aboutit au choix de la troisiÈme qui, pour les raisons de l'analyse portant sur tout un recueil, a ÉtÉ affinÉe, complÉtÉe; c'est la raison pour laquelle le chapitre deux explique le systÈme d'analyse, sa mÉthodologie et les conditions de perceptibilitÉ des figures qui en dÉcoulent - et ce, au travers d'exemples extraits exclusivement du corpus verlainien citÉ - Le troisiÈme chapitre propose l'analyse euphonique de vers isolÉs du recueil, selon le nombre croissant de syllabes par vers; il s'ensuit une analyse statistique des mots-thÈmes et des mots-clÉs qui tend À Éprouver la validitÉ de l'idÉe selon laquelle la structure euphonique du texte poÉtique peut servir de fondement À l'interprÉtation sÉmantique de ce texte. Dans le chapitre quatre, aprÈs une rapide comparaison entre les structures euphoniques portant sur un poÈme entier avec les structures musicales, sont rÉalisÉes diverses analyses de poÈmes considÉrÉs dans leur totalitÉ sonore. Enfin, le cinquiÈme chapitre analyse l'auto-implication de Verlaine dans son recueil par une triple approche : poÉtique, statistiqueet psychanalytique, qui aboutit À l'esquisse de l'hypothÈse d'une signature subliminale de son œuvre par le poÈte. ... Read more

Book Description

"These translations catch the wit, chameleon tones and sexual vigor of the original impressively"-Julian Barnes

Paul Verlaine (1844–1896) wrote three secret collections of verse, of which Femmesand Hombresremained almost unobtainable even in France until the 1970s. These strangely unrespectable poems celebrate the pleasures of sex, with women and men respectively, in loving detail. Alistair Elliot's penetrating, rambunctious translations vividly bring the poems into English.

Book Description
A representative collection of early and late lyrics, and the famed hymn, "Sagesse." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

dark beauty
Verlaine must be a big bad dog to translate.I'm going on faith here and assuming that the occassionally dippy rhyme scheme that pops up in some of the poems is a tragic result of the aforementioned difficulty.For the most part the work is lovely. (I mean what would you expect from possiblythe greatest French poet ever?)Dark and troubled, you get a vauge senseof ominous hulking black shapes around you, with the occassional gloriousbright spotof hope, the sensation of reading the work mirrors the nocturnallandscape in which many of the poems are set.It's sort of an interestingcollection.It skips over several of Verlaine's better known workschoosing, rather, to give sort of a life overview in 61 pages.Thetranslator, along with going on and on about indeed how hard it is totranslate Verlaine also talks a bit about his intentions in the selection. And, really, if you have some small knowledge of Verlaine's life, it doesmake the book more interesting.You can see the philosophical progressionof Verlaine's life and follow the subtle sine waves of his unique despair.Claire de Lune, Grotesques, and Parables are some of my personal favs. ... Read more