The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry - From Nerval to Valery
The Anchor Anthology of French Poetry - From Nerval to Valery
EDITED BY ANGEL FLOHES / INTRODUCTION BY PATTI SMITH / ANCHOR BOOKS - A Division of Random House, Inc.
This is an excellent anthology of French poetry starting with the work of Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855) and going through Paul Valery (1871-1945). The book is in two major sections: pp. 3-185 contain the English translations of the French poems (each poet has a section of poems - and the poets are presented in chronological order of their birth years); and pp. 289-443 present the same poems in the same order, but in French). There is a very good Table of Contents which tells the titles of the poems and the name and date of the published edition from which the poem comes, or the date of the individual poem itself. In the back of the volume there is an exceptionally good Bibliography with both General citations, as well as specific essays on the particular poets. Each poet also has listed the best edition of his works in that Bibliography. The poets presented in this anthology along with very good selections from their poems (and short biographies) are: Gerard de Nerval; Charles Baudelaire; Tristan Corbiere; Paul Verlaine; Arthur Rimbaud; Stephane Mallarme; Jules Laforgue; Guillaume Apollinaire; and Paul Valery. The English translations are by various people, some famous by name, others not so well known to the general reader.
~ And by my lamp which knows my agony at last,
Would imitate the Chinese of limpid, delicate bent,
Whose purest ecstasy is but to paint the end
Upon his cups of snow new ravished from the moon
Of some exotic flower that constantly perfumed
His life, transparent flower he smelled in infancy,
Grafting itself upon the soul’s blue filigree. ~
- Stephane Mallarme [Trans. Hubert Creekmore]
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