Description
Book SynopsisAn anthology of works by nineteenth-century French poet Paul Verlaine, presenting both the French texts and new translations and setting the poems in the context of Verlaine’s troubled life and his literary development.
Trade Review“The most comprehensive, and arguably the most definitive, bilingual collection to date of the work of French poet Paul Verlaine. . . . Rosenberg offers expansive translations without sacrificing the emotion or musicality of the original verse. The result is a masterful, spirited representation in English translation of Verlaine’s impact on modernist poetry. Essential.”
—A. J. Guillaume Jr. Choice
“This anthology gives a fuller picture of Verlaine’s poetry than many translations have offered in the past, providing some of his most famous verse but also some political and homoerotic works for which he is less known. The translations capture and reproduce Verlaine’s variety of registers and style in lively renderings that are faithful to the spirit of the buoyant original verse.”
—Joseph Acquisto,author of The Fall Out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, and Nancy
“Sam Rosenberg and Nicolas Valazza have created a magnificent and much-needed edition of Paul Verlaine’s work. The musicality of Rosenberg’s translation is extraordinary, capturing the peculiar artistry of Verlaine and providing Anglophone readers with the sense of ecstasy normally reserved for those who can read his work in its original French. Valazza’s painstaking work on this edition ensures that this tome will resonate widely and, moreover, remain one of the great classics of the Verlaine corpus, in any language.”
—Robert F. Barsky,Director of the W.T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies, Vanderbilt University
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Preface / Nicolas Valazza
Translator’s Note / Samuel N. Rosenberg
Chronology
Part 1: The Parnassian Years
First Poems
From Poèmes saturniens [Saturnine Poems]
From Les Amies [Girlfriends]
From Fêtes galantes [Gallant Festivities]
Poems Contemporaneous with Poèmes saturniens, Les Amies,
and Fêtes galantes
From La Bonne Chanson [The Good Song]
Part 2: Under the Spell of Rimbaud
First Encounters
From Album zutique
From Romances sans paroles [Songs Without Words]
Poems Contemporaneous with Romances sans paroles
After the Shooting
Part 3: From Prison to Conversion
In Prison (Poems from Cellulairement [Cellularly] and
Other Poems)
After the Conversion (Poems from Sagesse [Wisdom]
and Other Poems)
From Amour [Love] and Other Poems
From Bonheur [Happiness]
From Liturgies intimes [Intimate Liturgies]
Part 4: The Last Years
From Dédicaces [Dedications]
From Chansons pour Elle [Songs for Her]
From Odes en son honneur [Odes in Her Honor] and Élégies
From Dans les limbes [In Limbo]
In England (1893)
From Épigrammes [Epigrams]
From Invectives [Invective]
From Chair [Flesh]
From Biblio-sonnets
Late Uncollected Poems
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Titles and First Lines
Index of Proper Nouns
