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Rimbaud - good translations

damselnat · 2013-03-19 01:18:08

Hi guys, a question and a bit of frustration-expressing! Big fan of Rimbaud's poetry since I was a teenager (not that long ago, I hasten to add!) when I stumbled across a slim and certainly not comprehensive volume of my Nan's that I fell in love with. She died a few years ago however and most of her books got spirited…

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19-03-2013 2:18am

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damselnat

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Hi guys, a question and a bit of frustration-expressing!
Big fan of Rimbaud's poetry since I was a teenager (not that long ago, I hasten to add!) when I stumbled across a slim and certainly not comprehensive volume of my Nan's that I fell in love with. She died a few years ago however and most of her books got spirited away, so I never did find that copy again. I've been on the hunt ever since (couldn't even describe to you what it looked like) for a decent translation. Now, my French is virtually non-existent, so I'm by no means an expert, but I have yet to find a translation that captures the essence the same way that book did, until I recently picked up a biography of Rimbaud by Edmund White, who did his own translations I believe, and very beautiful they are. It's only a slim book, however, and only a handful of poems are reproduced in it.

So basically I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good translation of Rimbaud - I have read Fowlie's and it just leaves me cold. I found it very solid and utilitarian compared to the gorgeous translations I read before, and in White's book (can someone persuade him to do his own translation? That would be divine!). I appreciate that poetry is particularly hard to translate, but perhaps someone out there can recommend one they enjoyed, or should I just give up and learn French altogether? :pac:

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