Product Description

French poet Paul Verlaine was a major representative of the symbolist movement during the latter half of the 19th century. Norman Shapiro's translations seek to display Verlaine's ability to transform into verse the essence of everyday life and make evident the reasons for his renown in France and throughout the Western world. This selection provides the reader with a cross-section of Verlaine's repertoire. Shapiro has included a number of the poet's early works, showing him at his most capricious and lyrical; many poems from his middle period, which reflect his on-again, off-again conversion to Catholicism after his tumultuous relationship with Arthur Rimbaud; and poems from his late period, when he fell prey to poverty, dissipation, and disease. These later poems, rarely anthologized, and for the most part little known, mark an important shift in Verlaine's style and exhibit the biting wit and deep sincerity that characterize this entire collection. Biographical introductions and notes help explain the circumstances that gave rise to Verlaine's work. By spanning the poet's entire life work, Shapiro presents to scholars, students, and general readers of poetry the full range of Verlaine's achievement.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292001 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 309 pages

Customer Reviews

Translator as Poet?
It is good to see well formatted bilingual editions of foreign poetry. The detail can be made more accessible to a reader who has only a moderate grasp of the original language.

However, I am always struck by two possible problems. And with Shapiro they are both evident in the extreme: firstly, the problem of rhyme. Having read on the back cover that his 'skillfully rhymed formal translations are outstanding', I was bitterly disappointed as I ventured inside. Concision is lost as surplus words are employed to achieve simple rhyming patterns, and phrases lose their clarity as they become overly cumbersome. It seems that for the sake of the surface structure, it is worth sacrificing the core structure - thus distorting the unity of the piece itself.

The second problem is one of meaning. There is a tragic delicacy to Verlaine's work, which seems to be treated very crudely by Shapiro. Profound concepts are often completly overlooked, or even twisted into confusion. For example, in "La 'grand ville'! Un tas criard de pierres blanches..." (p.118) Verlaine writes:

'D'autant plus apre et plus sanctifiante aussi',

while Shapiro turns 'et' into 'yet':

'All the more bleak, yet sacrosanct...'

Presumably this is because Shapiro has no idea that bleakness can be tied intimately to holiness; that they do not need to be opposed.
This dismissive approach to the poet's spiritual struggle is made explicit in the biographical prose of the edition. This is particularly sad because many people read such passages as if they were factual.

As Shapiro takes on the role of chronicler, and his translations assume a muddy, shallow poeticism of their own, to what extent can we see this as an edition of Verlaine's poems?

(For anyone who wants to become more familiar with Verlaine, and has a limited grasp of French, this is still a good book to buy.)