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Title: Rimbaud Complete Works: Selected Letters by Fowlie Wallace, Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud ISBN: 0-226-71973-1 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: July, 1966 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.23 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The Indispensable English Translation of Rimbaud's Works
Comment: Wallace Fowlie's translation of Rimbaud's complete poeticworks, together with a selection of Rimbaud's letters, provides themost complete and reliable English translation of Rimbaud's poetry and a useful companion to the many books on Rimbaud's life. While Fowlie's translations are workmanlike and somewhat unimaginative, they are generally faithful to the original French text. Moreover, because the original French version and the English translation are on facing pages, the reader can easily compare Fowlie's translation with the reader's own understanding and interpretation of the French text. In this respect, the book is particularly useful if you have some French fluency.
All translations are, by their nature, inauthentic since there is never a perfect correspondence between the resonant images and meanings of the original language and the new language into which a text is translated. Translation is, as one critic has said, "like kissing someone through a veil"; the sensations (meanings) of the original are occluded by the translative process. Recognizing this inevitable deficiency, all that a reader can ask is that a translation approximate, as closely as possible, the linguistic meaning of the original. Fowlie has achieved this, more so than many other translators of Rimbaud, who have corrupted the integrity of Rimbaud's original meanings by their own creative and symbolistic interpretive renderings.
Fowlie also has provided solid translations of Rimbaud's important letters, particularly the letters of May, 1871, to George Izambard and Paul Demeny which articulate Rimbaud's precocious and iconoclastic aesthetic view of the role of the poet. If the book has any real shortcoming, it is the truncated and relatively unintersting biographical section and a lack of detailed notes. However, those failings can be excused by the fact that Wylie's book achieves its main objective--bringing a complete text of Rimbaud's poems to the English speaking world. If you are studying Rimbaud and the biographical details of his early life, and you cannot read the original French, Wylie's collection is indispensable
Rating: 4
Summary: The Indispensable Translation of Rimbaud's Works
Comment: Wallace Fowlie's translation of Rimbaud's complete poeticworks, together with a selection of Rimbaud's letters, provides themost complete and reliable English translation of Rimbaud's poetry and a useful companion to the many books on Rimbaud's life. While Fowlie's translations are workmanlike and somewhat unimaginative, they are generally faithful to the original French text. Moreover, because the original French version and the English translation are on facing pages, the reader can easily compare Fowlie's translation with the reader's own understanding and interpretation of the French text. In this respect, the book is particularly useful if you have some French fluency.
All translations are, by their nature, inauthentic since there is never a perfect correspondence between the resonant images and meanings of the original language and the new language into which a text is translated. Translation is, as one critic has said, "like kissing someone through a veil"; the sensations (meanings) of the original are occluded by the translative process. Recognizing this inevitable deficiency, all that a reader can ask is that a translation approximate, as closely as possible, the linguistic meaning of the original. Fowlie has achieved this, more so than many other translators of Rimbaud, who have corrupted the integrity of Rimbaud's original meanings by their own creative and symbolistic interpretive renderings.
Fowlie also has provided solid translations of Rimbaud's important letters, particularly the letters of May, 1871, to George Izambard and Paul Demeny which articulate Rimbaud's precocious and iconoclastic aesthetic view of the role of the poet. If the book has any real shortcoming, it is the truncated and relatively unintersting biographical section and a lack of detailed notes. However, those failings can be excused by the fact that Wylie's book achieves its main objective--bringing a complete text of Rimbaud's poems to the English speaking world. If you are studying Rimbaud and the biographical details of his early life, and you cannot read the original French, Wylie's collection is indispensable
Rating: 5
Summary: If you have at least a smattering of French -- 10 stars
Comment: Original on the left side, *literal* translation on the right. If your French is a bit rusty (like mine), reading the "bare" original text only may prove toilsome. For such a reader, Fowlie's book is a great help -- you still have access to the original verse, but do not have to consult a dictionary every minute.
A reviewer below complained about a lack of artistic grace in the translation -- this is so by design! This is an advantage rather than a flaw: with the original staring right at you from the left page you're not going to miss anything; the only thing you need is a bit of assistance understanding forgotten words and difficult passages, and so the more literal the translation, the better. The poetry comes from the left side: *that* is what you read; the right side you only consult -- when necessary.
There are plenty of very good verse translations of Rimbaud; a reader having no command of French whatsoever should of course use those, but no translation, no matter how fine, can be exactly equivalent to the original: some things are bound to be missing, some things appear that aren't in the source -- reading poetry in translation is never quite the same, it is always a variation on the theme; the translator's rendering may even be better than the original, but never the same.
If you're interested in Rimbaud and your French is weak, this book is what you need; I wholeheartedly recommend this anthology; it's very well done.
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Title: Rimbaud: A Biography by Graham Robb ISBN: 039332267X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library) by Arthur Rimbaud, Wyatt Mason ISBN: 0679642307 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 19 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Selected Poems (Oxford World's Classics) by Paul Verlaine, Martin Sorrell ISBN: 0192833324 Publisher: Getty Ctr for Education in the Arts Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Collected Poems by Stephane Mallarme, Henry Weinfield ISBN: 0520207114 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: November, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud, Louise Varese ISBN: 0811201848 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Pub. Date: February, 1988 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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