What do you think?
Rate this book
螣喂 魏伪蟿伪蟻伪渭苇谓慰喂 蟺慰喂畏蟿苇蟼: 巍蔚渭蟺蠈, 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻, 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇
螌蟿伪谓 蟿慰 尾喂尾位喂慰蟺蠅位蔚委慰 螞蔚蠈谓 螔伪谓喂苇 魏蠀魏位慰蠁蠈蟻畏蟽蔚 蟿慰谓 螒蟺蟻委位喂慰 蟿慰蠀 1884 渭喂伪 渭喂魏蟻萎 蟺位伪魏苇蟿伪, 渭' 苇谓伪谓 蟺蟻慰魏位畏蟿喂魏蠈 蟿委蟿位慰 蟺慰蠀 蟺蟻慰慰蟻喂味蠈蟿伪谓 谓伪 蟽蟿伪未喂慰未蟻慰渭萎蟽蔚喂: "螣喂 魏伪蟿伪蟻伪渭苇谓慰喂 蟺慰喂畏蟿苇蟼", 慰 蟽蠀纬纬蟻伪蠁苇伪蟼 蟿畏蟼, 螤慰位 螔蔚蟻位苇谓, 蔚委谓伪喂 蟽伪蟻维谓蟿伪 蠂蟻蠈谓蠅谓. 螘委谓伪喂 蟿慰 蟺蟻蠋蟿慰 尾喂尾位委慰 蟿慰蠀 蟽蔚 蟺蟻蠈味伪, 伪位位维 蔚委谓伪喂 魏伪喂 蟿慰 蟺蟻蠋蟿慰 尾喂尾位委慰 蟺慰蠀 苇尾纬伪位蔚 蟽蟿慰谓 螔伪谓喂苇. 螣 蟺蟻蠋畏谓 魏蟻伪蟿慰蠉渭蔚谓慰蟼 蟿蠅谓 蠁蠀位伪魏蠋谓 蟿畏蟼 螠慰谓蟼 苇蠂蔚喂 萎未畏 未畏渭慰蟽喂蔚蠉蟽蔚喂 蟿畏 "桅蟻蠈谓畏蟽畏", 蟽蟿慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 蟿慰蠀 1880, 渭喂伪 蟺慰喂畏蟿喂魏萎 蟽蠀位位慰纬萎 -蟺慰蠀 苇蟿蠀蠂蔚 魏伪位萎蟼 蠀蟺慰未慰蠂萎蟼- 魏维蟺慰喂慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 渭蠈位喂蟼 蔚委蠂蔚 渭蔚蟿伪渭蔚位畏胃蔚委 魏伪喂 蟺慰蠀 蟺维谓蠅 蟿慰蠀 蟺位伪谓喂苇蟿伪喂 渭喂伪 蠁萎渭畏 蟽魏伪谓未伪位蠋未畏蟼. 韦慰 尾喂尾位喂伪蟻维魏喂, 蟿蠀蟺蠅渭苇谓慰 渭慰谓维蠂伪 蟽蔚 未喂伪魏蠈蟽喂伪 蟺蔚谓萎谓蟿伪 蟿蟻委伪 伪谓蟿委蟿蠀蟺伪, 蔚委谓伪喂 魏慰蟽渭畏渭苇谓慰 渭蔚 蟿蟻委伪 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪. 螒蟺' 伪蠀蟿维. 蟿慰蠀 韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻 魏伪喂 蟿慰蠀 螒蟻蟿委蟻 巍蔚渭蟺蠈 苇蠂慰蠀谓 伪谓伪蟺伪蟻伪蠂胃蔚委 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 蠁蠅蟿慰纬蟻伪蠁委蔚蟼 蟿畏蟼 螘蟿喂苇谓 螝伪蟻味维, 蔚谓蠋 蟿慰蠀 危蟿蔚蠁维谓 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰谓 蟺委谓伪魏伪 蟿慰蠀 螘谓蟿慰蠀维蟻 螠伪谓苇 (1876), 蟺慰蠀 蟽萎渭蔚蟻伪 尾蟻委蟽魏蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蟿慰 螠慰蠀蟽蔚委慰 蟿慰蠀 Zeu de Paume. 螆谓伪 蟽蠉谓蟿慰渭慰 螤蟻慰慰委渭喂慰, 渭蔚 畏渭蔚蟻慰渭畏谓委伪 25 桅蔚尾蟻慰蠀伪蟻委慰蠀 1884, 蟺蟻慰蟿维蟽蟽蔚蟿伪喂 蟽蟿伪 蟿蟻委伪 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪. 韦伪 蟿蟻委伪 伪蠀蟿维 魏蔚委渭蔚谓伪 未蔚谓 萎蟿伪谓 伪谓苇魏未慰蟿伪. 螣 螔蔚蟻位苇谓 蟿伪 蔚委蠂蔚 蟺伪蟻慰蠀蟽喂维蟽蔚喂 蟿慰 1883 蟽蔚 渭喂伪 渭喂魏蟻萎蟼 魏蠀魏位慰蠁慰蟻委伪蟼 蔚尾未慰渭伪未喂伪委伪 蔚蟺喂胃蔚蠋蟻畏蟽畏, 蟿畏 Lutece:
螣 韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 24 螒蠀纬慰蠉蟽蟿慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 28 危蔚蟺蟿蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀, 慰 螒蟻蟿委蟻 巍蔚渭蟺蠈, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 5 螣魏蟿蠅尾蟻委慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 10 螡慰蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀 魏伪喂 慰 危蟿蔚蠁维谓 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 17 螡慰蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 5 螜伪谓慰蠀伪蟻委慰蠀 蟿慰蠀 1884.
螖蔚谓 蟺蟻蠈魏蔚喂蟿伪喂 谓伪 尾蟻蔚喂 魏伪谓蔚委蟼 蔚未蠋 尾喂慰纬蟻伪蠁喂魏维 蟽蠂蠈位喂伪 萎 魏蟻喂蟿喂魏苇蟼 伪蟺蠈蠄蔚喂蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪 蟺慰喂畏蟿蠋谓 魏伪渭蠅渭苇谓伪 伪蟺蠈 苇谓伪谓 蟺慰喂畏蟿萎 蟺慰蠀 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪纬伪蟺维 魏伪喂 蟺伪蟻伪胃苇蟿蔚喂 未喂伪蟻魏蠋蟼 伪蟺慰蟽蟺维蟽渭伪蟿伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰 苇蟻纬慰 蟿慰蠀蟼.
韦慰 蟺喂慰 蔚蟺喂渭蔚位畏渭苇谓慰 "蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿慰" 蔚委谓伪喂 伪蟽蠁伪位蠋蟼 伪蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪位喂慰蠉 蠁委位慰蠀 蟿慰蠀, 蟿慰蠀 巍蔚渭蟺蠈, 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 慰蟺慰委慰 渭喂位维蔚喂 渭蔚 苇谓伪谓 "尾伪胃蠉蟿伪蟿慰 胃伪蠀渭伪蟽渭蠈" 魏伪喂 蟿慰谓 蟺伪蟻慰蠀蟽喂维味蔚喂 蟽伪谓 "渭蔚纬伪位慰蠁蠀螑伪". 螘委谓伪喂 伪魏蠈渭伪 蟿慰 蟺喂慰 蟺慰位蠉蟿喂渭慰 纬喂伪 蟿喂蟼 蟺位畏蟻慰蠁慰蟻委蔚蟼 蟺慰蠀 蟺蔚蟻喂苇蠂蔚喂, 蠅蟼 蟿蠈蟿蔚 维纬谓蠅蟽蟿蔚蟼, 魏伪喂 蟺蟻慰蟺维谓蟿蠅谓 纬喂伪 蟿伪 蟺慰喂萎渭伪蟿伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 未畏渭慰蟽喂蔚蠉蔚喂.
螤伪蚁慰蠀蟽委伪蟽畏
螤蟻慰慰委渭喂慰 纬喂伪 蟿伪 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪 蟿蠅谓 蟺慰喂畏蟿蠋谓 蟺慰蠀 蟺伪蟻慰蠀蟽喂维味慰谓蟿伪喂 蔚未蠋
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻
螒蟻蟿委蟻 巍蔚渭蟺蠈
危蟿蔚蠁维谓 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇
螘蟺委渭蔚蟿蚁慰
危蠂蠈位喂伪 蟿慰蠀 渭蔚蟿伪蠁蟻伪蟽蟿萎
螤伪蚁维蚁蟿畏渭伪:
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻, 螝委蟿蟻喂谓慰喂 苇蟻蠅蟿蔚蟼
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻: 螣喂 渭维蟽魏蔚蟼 魏伪喂 畏 蔚魏蟻畏魏蟿喂魏萎 喂未喂慰蟽蠀纬魏蟻伪蟽委伪
围蟻慰谓慰位慰纬喂魏蠈蟼 蟺委谓伪魏伪蟼
螒纬蚁蠉蟺谓喂伪
螞喂蟿伪谓蔚委伪 蟿慰蠀 蠉蟺谓慰蠀
韦慰 蟿苇位慰蟼
危蠂蠈位喂伪
螒纬蚁蠉蟺谓喂伪 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
螞喂蟿伪谓蔚委伪 蟿慰蠀 蠉蟺谓慰蠀 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
韦慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
螒谓蟿蟻苇 螠蟺蟻蔚蟿蠈谓: 韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻
螣 韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 24 螒蠀纬慰蠉蟽蟿慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 28 危蔚蟺蟿蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀, 慰 螒蟻蟿委蟻 巍蔚渭蟺蠈, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 5 螣魏蟿蠅尾蟻委慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 10 螡慰蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀 魏伪喂 慰 危蟿蔚蠁维谓 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇, 伪蟺蠈 蟿喂蟼 17 螡慰蔚渭尾蟻委慰蠀 蠅蟼 蟿喂蟼 5 螜伪谓慰蠀伪蟻委慰蠀 蟿慰蠀 1884.
螖蔚谓 蟺蟻蠈魏蔚喂蟿伪喂 谓伪 尾蟻蔚喂 魏伪谓蔚委蟼 蔚未蠋 尾喂慰纬蟻伪蠁喂魏维 蟽蠂蠈位喂伪 萎 魏蟻喂蟿喂魏苇蟼 伪蟺蠈蠄蔚喂蟼 蔚委谓伪喂 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪 蟺慰喂畏蟿蠋谓 魏伪渭蠅渭苇谓伪 伪蟺蠈 苇谓伪谓 蟺慰喂畏蟿萎 蟺慰蠀 蟿慰蠀蟼 伪纬伪蟺维 魏伪喂 蟺伪蟻伪胃苇蟿蔚喂 未喂伪蟻魏蠋蟼 伪蟺慰蟽蟺维蟽渭伪蟿伪 伪蟺蠈 蟿慰 苇蟻纬慰 蟿慰蠀蟼.
韦慰 蟺喂慰 蔚蟺喂渭蔚位畏渭苇谓慰 "蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿慰" 蔚委谓伪喂 伪蟽蠁伪位蠋蟼 伪蠀蟿蠈 蟿慰蠀 蟺伪位喂慰蠉 蠁委位慰蠀 蟿慰蠀, 蟿慰蠀 巍蔚渭蟺蠈, 纬喂伪 蟿慰谓 慰蟺慰委慰 渭喂位维蔚喂 渭蔚 苇谓伪谓 "尾伪胃蠉蟿伪蟿慰 胃伪蠀渭伪蟽渭蠈" 魏伪喂 蟿慰谓 蟺伪蟻慰蠀蟽喂维味蔚喂 蟽伪谓 "渭蔚纬伪位慰蠁蠀螑伪". 螘委谓伪喂 伪魏蠈渭伪 蟿慰 蟺喂慰 蟺慰位蠉蟿喂渭慰 纬喂伪 蟿喂蟼 蟺位畏蟻慰蠁慰蟻委蔚蟼 蟺慰蠀 蟺蔚蟻喂苇蠂蔚喂, 蠅蟼 蟿蠈蟿蔚 维纬谓蠅蟽蟿蔚蟼, 魏伪喂 蟺蟻慰蟺维谓蟿蠅谓 纬喂伪 蟿伪 蟺慰喂萎渭伪蟿伪 蟿慰蠀 蟺慰蠀 未畏渭慰蟽喂蔚蠉蔚喂.
螤伪蚁慰蠀蟽委伪蟽畏
螤蟻慰慰委渭喂慰 纬喂伪 蟿伪 蟺慰蟻蟿蟻苇蟿伪 蟿蠅谓 蟺慰喂畏蟿蠋谓 蟺慰蠀 蟺伪蟻慰蠀蟽喂维味慰谓蟿伪喂 蔚未蠋
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻
螒蟻蟿委蟻 巍蔚渭蟺蠈
危蟿蔚蠁维谓 螠伪位伪蟻渭苇
螘蟺委渭蔚蟿蚁慰
危蠂蠈位喂伪 蟿慰蠀 渭蔚蟿伪蠁蟻伪蟽蟿萎
螤伪蚁维蚁蟿畏渭伪:
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻, 螝委蟿蟻喂谓慰喂 苇蟻蠅蟿蔚蟼
韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻: 螣喂 渭维蟽魏蔚蟼 魏伪喂 畏 蔚魏蟻畏魏蟿喂魏萎 喂未喂慰蟽蠀纬魏蟻伪蟽委伪
围蟻慰谓慰位慰纬喂魏蠈蟼 蟺委谓伪魏伪蟼
螒纬蚁蠉蟺谓喂伪
螞喂蟿伪谓蔚委伪 蟿慰蠀 蠉蟺谓慰蠀
韦慰 蟿苇位慰蟼
危蠂蠈位喂伪
螒纬蚁蠉蟺谓喂伪 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
螞喂蟿伪谓蔚委伪 蟿慰蠀 蠉蟺谓慰蠀 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
韦慰 蟿苇位慰蟼 (危蠂蠈位喂伪)
螒谓蟿蟻苇 螠蟺蟻蔚蟿蠈谓: 韦蟻喂蟽蟿维谓 螝慰蟻渭蟺喂苇蟻
125 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1884
34 people are currently reading
763 people want to read
About the author
Paul Verlaine
722听books404听followersPaul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de si猫cle in international and French poetry.
Despite Rimbaud admiring his poetry, these poets had a stormy affair which led to Verlaine's incarceration after shooting Rimbaud. This incident indirectly preceded his re-conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Verlaine's last years were particularly marked by alcoholism, drug addiction and poverty.
His poems have inspired many composers, such as Chopin, Faur茅 and Poldowski.
Art Po茅tique describes his decadent style and alludes to the relevance of nuances and veils in poetry.
Despite Rimbaud admiring his poetry, these poets had a stormy affair which led to Verlaine's incarceration after shooting Rimbaud. This incident indirectly preceded his re-conversion to Roman Catholicism.
Verlaine's last years were particularly marked by alcoholism, drug addiction and poverty.
His poems have inspired many composers, such as Chopin, Faur茅 and Poldowski.
Art Po茅tique describes his decadent style and alludes to the relevance of nuances and veils in poetry.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 17, 2019
Verlaine piensa lo maldito en doble circulaci贸n, que se vuelve triple. Primero, est谩n los malditos por otros. Segundo, los malditos por s铆 mismos. Tercero, los malditos en s铆 mismos, que son los aut茅nticos malditos. Verlaine comenta siete poetas malditos. En Villiers la maldici贸n es de otros. En otros casos, la maldici贸n es propia, del condenado que habla. El m谩s maldito de los malditos es Rimbaud, maldito desde dentro, en su morfolog铆a, en s铆 mismo. Que el lenguaje genere belleza, pero sin ingenuidad. Que la insuficiencia de la palabra traiga superabundancia por el ritmo, por los sonidos, por los recursos ret贸ricos articulados, por la fatalidad de las im谩genes. Versos rotos que son viajes a otros mundos hiperdensos. El argumento es plat贸nico, plotiniano, por eso est谩 m谩s impl铆cito que visible. Este libro tambi茅n se puede leer para intentar comprender de qu茅 se trata leer.
May 5, 2016
Un dossier fundamental para entender la revoluci贸n que dio la poes铆a en el s XIX que involucraba a este grupo y que ven铆a a romper con el paup茅rrimo romanticismo soso.
Gracias a ellos tuvimos el dada铆smo y vanguardismo, aunque no les guste reconocerlo.
Gracias a ellos tuvimos el dada铆smo y vanguardismo, aunque no les guste reconocerlo.
September 30, 2014
review of
Paul Verlaine's The Cursed Poets
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 9, 2014
Yadda, yadda, review too long. See the full thing here: /story/show/...
I probably 1st learned about Paul Verlaine thru learning about Arthur Rimbaud (born October 20, 1854) when I was a teenager in the early 1970s. Rimbaud wd've probably been an author I wd've heard about from the same group of friends who wd've exposed me to Hermann Hesse, Kahlil Gibran, & Antoine de Saint-Exup茅ry. I wd've then read the New Directions Paperbook editions of Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat & Illuminations - both translated by Louise Var猫se.
In the former, in the introductory "A Rimbaud Chronology" (prepared by Hubert Creekmore for the publisher w/ its "factual data [..] taken largely from the definitive biography of Rimbaud by Professor Enid Starkie" - p vii), I read that when Rimbaud was around 16 he "read everything he could lay hands on including the work of the new poet Paul Verlaine." (p x) "Bretagne, who knew Verlaine, suggested that Rimbaud write to him and himself added an introduction. In the letter Rimbaud enclosed some of his poems and received an enthusiastic reply from Verlaine and an invitation to come to Paris." (p xii)
1871: "Rimbaud's visit to the Verlaine household in Paris scandalized both the conservative family and the neighbors. His wife's parents felt that Verlaine, although twenty years older than Rimbaud, was being debauched by the young man" (p xii) Rimbaud & Verlaine's relationship resulted in Verlaine's leaving his wife & the 2 of them moving to London.
1872: "the following January, Verlaine, ill with influenza, recalled Rimbaud by picturing himself as dying alone in a strange city; and their debauchery was resumed. During this period, Rimbaud felt a growing disgust for Verlaine's sentimentality and wished to separate himself from what he now considered a debilitating influence." (pp xiii-xiv) "When he announced that he was leaving, Verlaine shot at him three times with a revolver, striking him once in the wrist. Mme. Verlaine and Rimbaud managed to quiet his hysteria, but when, on the way to the railroad station, Rimbaud remained firm in his decision to leave, Verlaine again lost control and threatened him. Rimbaud called for police protection. Verlaine was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years' hard labor and a fine." (p xiv)
&, w/ that latter, I, as a young anarchist, parted ways w/ Rimbaud. Given that I was about the same age as Rimbaud was when he went thru this I probably had the strong philosophical inclination to NOT have someone arrested under such circumstances. Now, I'm just glad I've never been shot. "In 1875 he traveled to Germany, and in Stuttgart, Verlaine, just released and full of his new religious zeal acquired in prison, joined him. Of this visit which lasted two and a half days, Rimbaud wrote in a letter to his old friend Delahaye: "Verlaine arrived here the other day pawing a rosary. . . Three hours later he had denied his God and started the 98 wounds of Our Lord bleeding again."" (p xv) Verlaine had it bad. Obviously, Rimbaud gave him something that his wife didn't. "at last in May, 1888 [Rimbaud] returned to Hasar as partner of two established gun-runners and slave-traders." (p xviii) Here, I part ways w/ Rimbaud again.
"When he did not answer a letter from Verlaine, the older poet assumed that he was dead and had an edition of his poems published in 1886." (p xvii) Rimbaud didn't actually die until November 10, 1891. Now, finally, I get to The Cursed Poets. The translator, Chase Madar, begins w/: "Assembled from articles published in the journals 尝耻迟猫肠别 and La Vogue, the full version of Les Po猫tes maudits was first published in 1888. The little book helped build the reputations of the poets; it also helped fortify Verlaine's own renown, and finances." (p 5)
Verlaine's praise for the 6 poets he writes about is enthusiastic, well written, convincing (to me, ie), &, apparently, deeply sincere. I got the impression that Verlaine, does, indeed, obsessively care about poetry & has well-developed ideas about what constitutes important poetry. One of the poets praised is Rimbaud. I provided the back-story about Verlaine's relationship w/ Rimbaud partially to show that Verlaine's praise for his writing continued even tho Rimbaud had him put in prison. This can be taken to mean both that Verlaine was 'hopelessly' 'in love' w/ Rimbaud &/or that he intended to praise the poetry as great regardless of how disastrous his personal relationship may've been w/ him. A lesser man, a man less sincerely dedicated to poetry, might've retaliated against Rimbaud instead of continuing to praise him. I can think of many an ex-girlfriend who destroyed my work upon breaking up w/ me - thusly revealing the petty vindictiveness that made them worth breaking up w/ in the 1st place.
Most of the poets written about by Verlaine were probably obscure at the the time, some are still obscure today: "Rimbaud, Mallarm茅, and Verlaine himself don't need my introduction, but the other poets very well might. Tristan Corbi猫re was, with Jules Laforgue, a major influence on T. S. Eliot; his directness and unfussily abrupt prosody have aged well." (p 5) I am, as always glad to learn of the more obscure people - & it's particularly enlightening to have Verlaine's contemporaneous critique.
But the above version of who's obscure by the translator is not Verlaine's own at the time of writing over 100 yrs before this edition:
"The name and work of Corbi猫re and those of Mallarm茅 are assured for the duration of time; some will stay on men's lips, the others in the memories of all worthy of them. Corbi猫re and Mallarm茅 have been published, 鈥� that enormous minor detail. Rimbaud, too scornful, more scornful even than Corbi猫re who at least flung his volume square at the century's nose, did not want any of his verse to appear in print." - p 59
"It has to be said: Much of Verlaine's prose is deep purple fustian. A good weave, and made of sturdy stuff, yes, but still deep purple fustian. Often it's been tempting to leach out some of the purpleness, but that is not the translator's role; that would, in fact, go against the translator's humble, professional duty not to try and improve (read: distort) the original work." - pp 5-6
Bravo! No translator shd try to 'improve' the original work - a translator's very difficult job is to try to faithfully present the work in the language the intended readers know. Alas, in the very next paragraph, the translator writes:
"In many instances, the poem given by Verlaine differs from the definitive version; in all cases I have taken the definitive version rather than the one originally given in Les Po猫tes maudits." - p 6
I wd've preferred that Madar, the translator, wd've NOT made this decision. Something's becoming "definitive" is not always w/o a suspicious process behind it. For scholarly purposes, having access to variant versions of a poem might be quite useful for understanding its development etc. To have access to such a rare collection of poetry gleaned from a source as primary as Verlaine is an opportunity wasted by defaulting to more well-known versions. As Verlaine writes, pleading for poems by Rimbaud he knows to exist:
"So let us here beseech all our known and unknown friends who might possess Les Veilleurs, Accroupissements, Les Pauvres 脿 l'茅glise, Les Reveilleurs de la nuit, Douaniers, Les Main de jeanne-Marie, Souer de Charit茅 and anything else signed by this prestigious name, to be willing to send them to us for the probable case in which this work must be finished. In the name of the honor of Letters, we will repeat our prayer. The manuscripts will be religiously returned, once copies are made, to their generous owners." - p 59
Keep in mind, this wasn't the day of photocopiers & scanners. Either he was going to have them hand-copied or typeset or whatever. Copies of poems were RARE. "Definitive" versions of poems might've been Rimbaud's idea of the best one or a Rimbaud scholar's idea of the best one or whatever but that doesn't necessarily discount other versions.
Otherwise, this is a lovely edition insofar as the poems are presented in both French & English. Alas, one thing that's apparently missing are portraits of the poets that the reader learns about having been in the original edition by reading Verlaine's "About The Following Portraits". The only one provided in this edition is of Rimbaud & is the same portrait on the cover of the edition of Illuminations that I have (although less cropped in The Cursed Poets). Verlaine has this to say about it:
"脡tienne Carjat photographed M. Arthur Rimbaud in October 1871. It is this excellent photograph that the reader now has in front of him, reproduced, just like the picture taken from nature of Corbi猫re, by the process of photogravure.
"Is he not the "Sublime Boy" without the atrocious failure of Chateaubriand, but not without the protestation of lips which have long been sensual, and a pair of eyes lost in very old memories rather than any dream, however precocious? A kid Casanova, but even more so a certified expert in love-affairs, doesn't he laugh with his flaring nostrils and his handsome dimpled chin; doesn't he seem to have just said, "go take a hike" to all illusions that don't owe their existence to the most irrevocable will? The proud mop of hair could only be tousled, like cushions gracefully rumpled by the elbow of some sultanesque whim. And this virile disdain for all good grooming, so useless besides the devil's own quite literal beauty!" - pp 10-11
Yes, Verlaine had it bad - but at least he wasn't mediocre about it!
"We might have called them Absolute Poets to be more cautious, but, aside from the fact that caution is hardly in season these days, our title has something for the type of reader whom we hate, and, we're sure of it, something for the survivors among the All-Powerful Ones in question, for the common herd of 茅lite readers 鈥� a rude jab of the middle finger that makes us feel better." - p 12
So, apparently, the middle finger gesture dates at least back to the 19th century & was used in France. According to Wikipedia, "The gesture dates back to Ancient Greece and was also used in Ancient Rome. Historically, it represented the phallus. In some modern cultures, it has gained increasing acceptance as a sign of disrespect, and has been used by music artists, athletes, and politicians. Most still view the gesture as obscene." ( ) Looking online, I also found this:
....................../麓炉/)
....................,/炉../
.................../..../
............./麓炉/'...'/麓炉炉缚路赂
........../'/.../..../......./篓炉袄
........('(...麓...麓.... 炉~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.路麓
............\..............(
..............\.............\...
( ) Nice! Even the URL's a hoot!
The 1st poet discussed is "Tristan Corbi猫re [who] was a Breton, a sailor, and the aloof scornful type par excellence" (p 13) A "Breton" being a person from Brittany, the Northwest coast of France, an area that interests me more & more partially thanks to the information rc'vd about the area from a friend of mine from there: Brittany's incorporation into France is not necessarily any more welcome than many other such incorporations. Verlaine references his 'Breton-ness' thusly:
"What a Breton bretonning in the grand old style! The child of the moors and great oaks and riverbanks that were! And how he remembers and cherishes, this frightening faux-skeptic, the closely held superstitions of his tender, rustic brethren of the coast!" - p 21
The 1st of his poems presented starts off in French like this:
RESCOUSSE
Si ma guitare
Que je r茅pare,
Trois fois barbare,
Kriss indien,
- The full translation from Madar follows:
If my guitar which I repair, triply barbaric, Indian kriss,
Torturer's tool, guillotine, bag of tricks, doesn't do well . . .
If my worse voice can't tell you of my sweet martyrdom . . . 鈥� A dog's life! 鈥�
If my cigar, comfort and lighthouse, doesn't bother you at all; 鈥� Fire for burning . . .
If my menace, passing cyclone, lacks gracefulness; 鈥� Mute from howling! . . .
If my soul the sea in flames has no sharp edge 鈥� Cooks by freezing . . .
Then I'm leaving!
- pp 14- 15
(Corbi猫re lived from 1845-1875, not quite making it to 30 yrs old) for those of you who, like myself, get a sense of a person's originality or lack thereof based on their placement in a chronology)
1st, I love the poem; 2nd I'm struck by the challenge the translator faces: the original has the last words of the 1st 3 lines of each stanza rhyme, the 4th & last line of each stanza rhymes w/ that of the 4th line in the 1st 3 stanzas & then the rhyme changes so that the 4th lines in the next 3 stanzas rhyme w/ each other AND w/ the final line that stands alone. This rhyme scheme is obviously taut & influences what words Corbi猫re can choose.
Madar's approach to the translating is to not render the rhyme schemes but to opt instead for the sense of the words only. Given that I'm NOT a translator but that I appreciate the extreme difficulties of doing a good job of it, I can only admire the success w/ wch Madar does his job. What I'm reminded of is the Preface written by Jean Calais to his edition of the poetry of Villon published as number one of "The Pick Pocket Series":
"Some of these poems as a result are literally reckoned and others literally are not. Nowhere did I deliberately deviate from the muse (sic) of the original, and where I did I always believed I was playing an actual rope supplied by Villon. If I have anywhere taken liberties with a particular passage, it is a text which continually liberates its intelligence by the undoing of its adversaries.
"I did take the task "seriously." That is, I wanted to make the best poems possible, ones that would have the directness, the vitality, the immediacy and the energy (not to mention the sunsets) of the original, without sacrificing authenticity and everyday liveliness."
I loved Calais's rendering of Villon but, not being familiar w/ the original French, am not qualified to comment further on the quality of the translation. It certainly got me interested in Villon so I reckon Calais more than did his job there.
All that sd, I can't help but yearn somewhat for poetry translations that accomplish all this AND preserve the rhyme scheme. A tall order, I know, but on a generally formal level (rather than a strictly 'poetic' one), an order prodigiously met by Gilbert Adair in his translation of George Perec's La Disparition, wch Adair translated as A Void. If Adair can take a French novel in wch the letter "e" never occurs & translate it into English w/o having the letter "e" occur EITHER & still preserve the plot of the novel AND have it be 'good' reading than, surely preserving the rhyme scheme in relatively simple poems shdn't be so impossible. Of course, translators aren't necessarily pd well enuf to justify the expenditure of time that might be required, etc, etc..
Onward.
Corbi猫re strikes me as borderline proto-Surrrealist in "脡PITAPHE" ("EPITAPH"), the last section of wch is translated as:
"Of je ne sais quoi. 鈥� But not knowing where; of gold, 鈥� but penniless; of nerves, 鈥� but nerveless. Vigor without force; of 茅lan, 鈥� but with a sprained ankle; of soul 鈥� and no violin; of love, 鈥� but of the lowest kind; 鈥� Too many names to have a name. 鈥�" - p 17
But, in the long run, not really stream-of-consciousness enuf to be Surrealist, too expressive, but successfully I find, of a "je ne sais quoi" state of mind.. or being.. I reckon that the "soul" w/ "no violin" is some sort of associative reference a little more metaphorically based than it's preceding pairs & that it's rooted in cultural imagery that wd've been plain to the readers of its time.. But what if "violon"'s rhyming w/ the end word of the next line, "茅talon", determined its choice a bit more than its meaning? What if another word, less metaphorical, wd've been chosen if the rhyme had worked that way? That's when I wonder what a rhymed translation wd be like.. A translation that preserves the sound structure & has to resort to straining the metaphor to do it..
Verlaine comments on Corbi猫re:
"As for the rest, we would have to cite the entire section of this book, and then the entire book, or rather it would be necessary to reprint this unique work, Les Amours jaunes, which appeared in 1873 and is today nearly impossible to find, a book in which Villon and Pyrrho would be pleased to find an often worthy rival 鈥� and the most renowned of today's true poets would find a master (to say the least) of their own stature." - p 18
Indeed. He's got me interested. & I certainly understand the "we would have to cite the entire section of this book, and then the entire book" - as anyone who reads my reviews may groan knowingly! SO, is These Jaundiced Loves "today nearly impossible to find"?! No, thank the holy ceiling light, no. There're copies available online for as low as $6.21. Do I HAVE $6.21? No, indeed, I don't, not after losing my last $6 out of my pocket yesterday. Maybe someone else will find that $6 & buy These Jaundiced Loves w/ it! Not bloody likely.
& now we reach Rimbaud. I wrote earlier that "I provided the back-story about Verlaine's relationship w/ Rimbaud partially to show that Verlaine's praise for his writing continued even tho Rimbaud had him put in prison. This can be taken to mean both that Verlaine was 'hopelessly' 'in love' w/ Rimbaud &/or that he intended to praise the poetry as great regardless of how disastrous his personal relationship may've been w/ him." & here's how Verlaine (in translation, ie) introduces the subject:
"We have had the joy of knowing Arthur Rimbaud. Today things separate us from him without, of course, his genius and his character ever having lacked our deep admiration." - p 29
"Here a parenthesis, and if these lines happen to fall under his eyes, then let Arthur Rimbaud know that we do not judge men's motives, and let him be assures of our complete approval of (and dark sorrow at, as well) his abdandonment of poetry, provided, as we don't doubt, that this abandonment was for him sensible, honest, and necessary." - p 30
[Coincidentally, while I was reading the above, I was also reading (well, not quite simultaneously) Stephen Emerson's "Letters to Verlaine" in RAMPIKE Vol. 23, No. 1]
For the complete review, go here: /story/show/...
Paul Verlaine's The Cursed Poets
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 9, 2014
Yadda, yadda, review too long. See the full thing here: /story/show/...
I probably 1st learned about Paul Verlaine thru learning about Arthur Rimbaud (born October 20, 1854) when I was a teenager in the early 1970s. Rimbaud wd've probably been an author I wd've heard about from the same group of friends who wd've exposed me to Hermann Hesse, Kahlil Gibran, & Antoine de Saint-Exup茅ry. I wd've then read the New Directions Paperbook editions of Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat & Illuminations - both translated by Louise Var猫se.
In the former, in the introductory "A Rimbaud Chronology" (prepared by Hubert Creekmore for the publisher w/ its "factual data [..] taken largely from the definitive biography of Rimbaud by Professor Enid Starkie" - p vii), I read that when Rimbaud was around 16 he "read everything he could lay hands on including the work of the new poet Paul Verlaine." (p x) "Bretagne, who knew Verlaine, suggested that Rimbaud write to him and himself added an introduction. In the letter Rimbaud enclosed some of his poems and received an enthusiastic reply from Verlaine and an invitation to come to Paris." (p xii)
1871: "Rimbaud's visit to the Verlaine household in Paris scandalized both the conservative family and the neighbors. His wife's parents felt that Verlaine, although twenty years older than Rimbaud, was being debauched by the young man" (p xii) Rimbaud & Verlaine's relationship resulted in Verlaine's leaving his wife & the 2 of them moving to London.
1872: "the following January, Verlaine, ill with influenza, recalled Rimbaud by picturing himself as dying alone in a strange city; and their debauchery was resumed. During this period, Rimbaud felt a growing disgust for Verlaine's sentimentality and wished to separate himself from what he now considered a debilitating influence." (pp xiii-xiv) "When he announced that he was leaving, Verlaine shot at him three times with a revolver, striking him once in the wrist. Mme. Verlaine and Rimbaud managed to quiet his hysteria, but when, on the way to the railroad station, Rimbaud remained firm in his decision to leave, Verlaine again lost control and threatened him. Rimbaud called for police protection. Verlaine was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years' hard labor and a fine." (p xiv)
&, w/ that latter, I, as a young anarchist, parted ways w/ Rimbaud. Given that I was about the same age as Rimbaud was when he went thru this I probably had the strong philosophical inclination to NOT have someone arrested under such circumstances. Now, I'm just glad I've never been shot. "In 1875 he traveled to Germany, and in Stuttgart, Verlaine, just released and full of his new religious zeal acquired in prison, joined him. Of this visit which lasted two and a half days, Rimbaud wrote in a letter to his old friend Delahaye: "Verlaine arrived here the other day pawing a rosary. . . Three hours later he had denied his God and started the 98 wounds of Our Lord bleeding again."" (p xv) Verlaine had it bad. Obviously, Rimbaud gave him something that his wife didn't. "at last in May, 1888 [Rimbaud] returned to Hasar as partner of two established gun-runners and slave-traders." (p xviii) Here, I part ways w/ Rimbaud again.
"When he did not answer a letter from Verlaine, the older poet assumed that he was dead and had an edition of his poems published in 1886." (p xvii) Rimbaud didn't actually die until November 10, 1891. Now, finally, I get to The Cursed Poets. The translator, Chase Madar, begins w/: "Assembled from articles published in the journals 尝耻迟猫肠别 and La Vogue, the full version of Les Po猫tes maudits was first published in 1888. The little book helped build the reputations of the poets; it also helped fortify Verlaine's own renown, and finances." (p 5)
Verlaine's praise for the 6 poets he writes about is enthusiastic, well written, convincing (to me, ie), &, apparently, deeply sincere. I got the impression that Verlaine, does, indeed, obsessively care about poetry & has well-developed ideas about what constitutes important poetry. One of the poets praised is Rimbaud. I provided the back-story about Verlaine's relationship w/ Rimbaud partially to show that Verlaine's praise for his writing continued even tho Rimbaud had him put in prison. This can be taken to mean both that Verlaine was 'hopelessly' 'in love' w/ Rimbaud &/or that he intended to praise the poetry as great regardless of how disastrous his personal relationship may've been w/ him. A lesser man, a man less sincerely dedicated to poetry, might've retaliated against Rimbaud instead of continuing to praise him. I can think of many an ex-girlfriend who destroyed my work upon breaking up w/ me - thusly revealing the petty vindictiveness that made them worth breaking up w/ in the 1st place.
Most of the poets written about by Verlaine were probably obscure at the the time, some are still obscure today: "Rimbaud, Mallarm茅, and Verlaine himself don't need my introduction, but the other poets very well might. Tristan Corbi猫re was, with Jules Laforgue, a major influence on T. S. Eliot; his directness and unfussily abrupt prosody have aged well." (p 5) I am, as always glad to learn of the more obscure people - & it's particularly enlightening to have Verlaine's contemporaneous critique.
But the above version of who's obscure by the translator is not Verlaine's own at the time of writing over 100 yrs before this edition:
"The name and work of Corbi猫re and those of Mallarm茅 are assured for the duration of time; some will stay on men's lips, the others in the memories of all worthy of them. Corbi猫re and Mallarm茅 have been published, 鈥� that enormous minor detail. Rimbaud, too scornful, more scornful even than Corbi猫re who at least flung his volume square at the century's nose, did not want any of his verse to appear in print." - p 59
"It has to be said: Much of Verlaine's prose is deep purple fustian. A good weave, and made of sturdy stuff, yes, but still deep purple fustian. Often it's been tempting to leach out some of the purpleness, but that is not the translator's role; that would, in fact, go against the translator's humble, professional duty not to try and improve (read: distort) the original work." - pp 5-6
Bravo! No translator shd try to 'improve' the original work - a translator's very difficult job is to try to faithfully present the work in the language the intended readers know. Alas, in the very next paragraph, the translator writes:
"In many instances, the poem given by Verlaine differs from the definitive version; in all cases I have taken the definitive version rather than the one originally given in Les Po猫tes maudits." - p 6
I wd've preferred that Madar, the translator, wd've NOT made this decision. Something's becoming "definitive" is not always w/o a suspicious process behind it. For scholarly purposes, having access to variant versions of a poem might be quite useful for understanding its development etc. To have access to such a rare collection of poetry gleaned from a source as primary as Verlaine is an opportunity wasted by defaulting to more well-known versions. As Verlaine writes, pleading for poems by Rimbaud he knows to exist:
"So let us here beseech all our known and unknown friends who might possess Les Veilleurs, Accroupissements, Les Pauvres 脿 l'茅glise, Les Reveilleurs de la nuit, Douaniers, Les Main de jeanne-Marie, Souer de Charit茅 and anything else signed by this prestigious name, to be willing to send them to us for the probable case in which this work must be finished. In the name of the honor of Letters, we will repeat our prayer. The manuscripts will be religiously returned, once copies are made, to their generous owners." - p 59
Keep in mind, this wasn't the day of photocopiers & scanners. Either he was going to have them hand-copied or typeset or whatever. Copies of poems were RARE. "Definitive" versions of poems might've been Rimbaud's idea of the best one or a Rimbaud scholar's idea of the best one or whatever but that doesn't necessarily discount other versions.
Otherwise, this is a lovely edition insofar as the poems are presented in both French & English. Alas, one thing that's apparently missing are portraits of the poets that the reader learns about having been in the original edition by reading Verlaine's "About The Following Portraits". The only one provided in this edition is of Rimbaud & is the same portrait on the cover of the edition of Illuminations that I have (although less cropped in The Cursed Poets). Verlaine has this to say about it:
"脡tienne Carjat photographed M. Arthur Rimbaud in October 1871. It is this excellent photograph that the reader now has in front of him, reproduced, just like the picture taken from nature of Corbi猫re, by the process of photogravure.
"Is he not the "Sublime Boy" without the atrocious failure of Chateaubriand, but not without the protestation of lips which have long been sensual, and a pair of eyes lost in very old memories rather than any dream, however precocious? A kid Casanova, but even more so a certified expert in love-affairs, doesn't he laugh with his flaring nostrils and his handsome dimpled chin; doesn't he seem to have just said, "go take a hike" to all illusions that don't owe their existence to the most irrevocable will? The proud mop of hair could only be tousled, like cushions gracefully rumpled by the elbow of some sultanesque whim. And this virile disdain for all good grooming, so useless besides the devil's own quite literal beauty!" - pp 10-11
Yes, Verlaine had it bad - but at least he wasn't mediocre about it!
"We might have called them Absolute Poets to be more cautious, but, aside from the fact that caution is hardly in season these days, our title has something for the type of reader whom we hate, and, we're sure of it, something for the survivors among the All-Powerful Ones in question, for the common herd of 茅lite readers 鈥� a rude jab of the middle finger that makes us feel better." - p 12
So, apparently, the middle finger gesture dates at least back to the 19th century & was used in France. According to Wikipedia, "The gesture dates back to Ancient Greece and was also used in Ancient Rome. Historically, it represented the phallus. In some modern cultures, it has gained increasing acceptance as a sign of disrespect, and has been used by music artists, athletes, and politicians. Most still view the gesture as obscene." ( ) Looking online, I also found this:
....................../麓炉/)
....................,/炉../
.................../..../
............./麓炉/'...'/麓炉炉缚路赂
........../'/.../..../......./篓炉袄
........('(...麓...麓.... 炉~/'...')
.........\.................'...../
..........''...\.......... _.路麓
............\..............(
..............\.............\...
( ) Nice! Even the URL's a hoot!
The 1st poet discussed is "Tristan Corbi猫re [who] was a Breton, a sailor, and the aloof scornful type par excellence" (p 13) A "Breton" being a person from Brittany, the Northwest coast of France, an area that interests me more & more partially thanks to the information rc'vd about the area from a friend of mine from there: Brittany's incorporation into France is not necessarily any more welcome than many other such incorporations. Verlaine references his 'Breton-ness' thusly:
"What a Breton bretonning in the grand old style! The child of the moors and great oaks and riverbanks that were! And how he remembers and cherishes, this frightening faux-skeptic, the closely held superstitions of his tender, rustic brethren of the coast!" - p 21
The 1st of his poems presented starts off in French like this:
RESCOUSSE
Si ma guitare
Que je r茅pare,
Trois fois barbare,
Kriss indien,
- The full translation from Madar follows:
If my guitar which I repair, triply barbaric, Indian kriss,
Torturer's tool, guillotine, bag of tricks, doesn't do well . . .
If my worse voice can't tell you of my sweet martyrdom . . . 鈥� A dog's life! 鈥�
If my cigar, comfort and lighthouse, doesn't bother you at all; 鈥� Fire for burning . . .
If my menace, passing cyclone, lacks gracefulness; 鈥� Mute from howling! . . .
If my soul the sea in flames has no sharp edge 鈥� Cooks by freezing . . .
Then I'm leaving!
- pp 14- 15
(Corbi猫re lived from 1845-1875, not quite making it to 30 yrs old) for those of you who, like myself, get a sense of a person's originality or lack thereof based on their placement in a chronology)
1st, I love the poem; 2nd I'm struck by the challenge the translator faces: the original has the last words of the 1st 3 lines of each stanza rhyme, the 4th & last line of each stanza rhymes w/ that of the 4th line in the 1st 3 stanzas & then the rhyme changes so that the 4th lines in the next 3 stanzas rhyme w/ each other AND w/ the final line that stands alone. This rhyme scheme is obviously taut & influences what words Corbi猫re can choose.
Madar's approach to the translating is to not render the rhyme schemes but to opt instead for the sense of the words only. Given that I'm NOT a translator but that I appreciate the extreme difficulties of doing a good job of it, I can only admire the success w/ wch Madar does his job. What I'm reminded of is the Preface written by Jean Calais to his edition of the poetry of Villon published as number one of "The Pick Pocket Series":
"Some of these poems as a result are literally reckoned and others literally are not. Nowhere did I deliberately deviate from the muse (sic) of the original, and where I did I always believed I was playing an actual rope supplied by Villon. If I have anywhere taken liberties with a particular passage, it is a text which continually liberates its intelligence by the undoing of its adversaries.
"I did take the task "seriously." That is, I wanted to make the best poems possible, ones that would have the directness, the vitality, the immediacy and the energy (not to mention the sunsets) of the original, without sacrificing authenticity and everyday liveliness."
I loved Calais's rendering of Villon but, not being familiar w/ the original French, am not qualified to comment further on the quality of the translation. It certainly got me interested in Villon so I reckon Calais more than did his job there.
All that sd, I can't help but yearn somewhat for poetry translations that accomplish all this AND preserve the rhyme scheme. A tall order, I know, but on a generally formal level (rather than a strictly 'poetic' one), an order prodigiously met by Gilbert Adair in his translation of George Perec's La Disparition, wch Adair translated as A Void. If Adair can take a French novel in wch the letter "e" never occurs & translate it into English w/o having the letter "e" occur EITHER & still preserve the plot of the novel AND have it be 'good' reading than, surely preserving the rhyme scheme in relatively simple poems shdn't be so impossible. Of course, translators aren't necessarily pd well enuf to justify the expenditure of time that might be required, etc, etc..
Onward.
Corbi猫re strikes me as borderline proto-Surrrealist in "脡PITAPHE" ("EPITAPH"), the last section of wch is translated as:
"Of je ne sais quoi. 鈥� But not knowing where; of gold, 鈥� but penniless; of nerves, 鈥� but nerveless. Vigor without force; of 茅lan, 鈥� but with a sprained ankle; of soul 鈥� and no violin; of love, 鈥� but of the lowest kind; 鈥� Too many names to have a name. 鈥�" - p 17
But, in the long run, not really stream-of-consciousness enuf to be Surrealist, too expressive, but successfully I find, of a "je ne sais quoi" state of mind.. or being.. I reckon that the "soul" w/ "no violin" is some sort of associative reference a little more metaphorically based than it's preceding pairs & that it's rooted in cultural imagery that wd've been plain to the readers of its time.. But what if "violon"'s rhyming w/ the end word of the next line, "茅talon", determined its choice a bit more than its meaning? What if another word, less metaphorical, wd've been chosen if the rhyme had worked that way? That's when I wonder what a rhymed translation wd be like.. A translation that preserves the sound structure & has to resort to straining the metaphor to do it..
Verlaine comments on Corbi猫re:
"As for the rest, we would have to cite the entire section of this book, and then the entire book, or rather it would be necessary to reprint this unique work, Les Amours jaunes, which appeared in 1873 and is today nearly impossible to find, a book in which Villon and Pyrrho would be pleased to find an often worthy rival 鈥� and the most renowned of today's true poets would find a master (to say the least) of their own stature." - p 18
Indeed. He's got me interested. & I certainly understand the "we would have to cite the entire section of this book, and then the entire book" - as anyone who reads my reviews may groan knowingly! SO, is These Jaundiced Loves "today nearly impossible to find"?! No, thank the holy ceiling light, no. There're copies available online for as low as $6.21. Do I HAVE $6.21? No, indeed, I don't, not after losing my last $6 out of my pocket yesterday. Maybe someone else will find that $6 & buy These Jaundiced Loves w/ it! Not bloody likely.
& now we reach Rimbaud. I wrote earlier that "I provided the back-story about Verlaine's relationship w/ Rimbaud partially to show that Verlaine's praise for his writing continued even tho Rimbaud had him put in prison. This can be taken to mean both that Verlaine was 'hopelessly' 'in love' w/ Rimbaud &/or that he intended to praise the poetry as great regardless of how disastrous his personal relationship may've been w/ him." & here's how Verlaine (in translation, ie) introduces the subject:
"We have had the joy of knowing Arthur Rimbaud. Today things separate us from him without, of course, his genius and his character ever having lacked our deep admiration." - p 29
"Here a parenthesis, and if these lines happen to fall under his eyes, then let Arthur Rimbaud know that we do not judge men's motives, and let him be assures of our complete approval of (and dark sorrow at, as well) his abdandonment of poetry, provided, as we don't doubt, that this abandonment was for him sensible, honest, and necessary." - p 30
[Coincidentally, while I was reading the above, I was also reading (well, not quite simultaneously) Stephen Emerson's "Letters to Verlaine" in RAMPIKE Vol. 23, No. 1]
For the complete review, go here: /story/show/...
March 13, 2013
Sobran comentarios.
January 31, 2025
A collection of poems and fragments by Tristan Corbi猫re, Arthur Rimbaud, St茅phane Mallamerm茅, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers De L'Isle-Adam and Paul Verlaine with portraits and commentary by Paul Verlaine. Most of these poets were not new to me, but Marceline Desbordes-Valmore was a revelation. This book would have been so much better without Paul Verlaine's fussy commentary and could have used a lot more of the poetry. Slim but incandescent.
July 31, 2013
On the book itself:
Pocket-sized. The commentary is not shown in original French.
But the main thing wrong with this edition of this book is that the English translations of the poems are not formatted as they should be. Instead the English translations are formatted in prose style where one stanza reads like a paragraph. There are no line breaks nor are the first letters of each line capitalized, so that you may at least know where a new line is supposed to begin.
For an otherwise excellent book, this is a poor translation edition.
Pocket-sized. The commentary is not shown in original French.
But the main thing wrong with this edition of this book is that the English translations of the poems are not formatted as they should be. Instead the English translations are formatted in prose style where one stanza reads like a paragraph. There are no line breaks nor are the first letters of each line capitalized, so that you may at least know where a new line is supposed to begin.
For an otherwise excellent book, this is a poor translation edition.
November 10, 2018
Este libro me permiti贸 descubrir poetas de los que poco hab铆a o铆do, y ahora estoy realmente interesada en leerlos pero debo decir que, a pesar de ello, no disfrute esta lectura como lo hab铆a esperado en un comienzo. La he encontrado bastante poco t茅cnica, con poca profundidad de an谩lisis. Es, primordialmente, una obra donde exalta a los poetas que admiraba.
July 27, 2020
An exquisite introduction to a stable of the worthiest writers you might ever be so fortunate as to encounter, its author undoubtedly one of the chiefest among them. An intensely joyful and edifying read of the highest caliber!
October 22, 2022
Verlaine es muy carism谩tico y el final me dio risa. 馃悎
November 15, 2022
Bellissimo, c鈥櫭� poco da dire su un autore grande come lui al giorno d鈥檕ggi.
November 30, 2008
The first time i read this in english i thought how Verlaine's rather absinthe soaked memories are an odd form of poetry in
their own right--the passages of purple prose, like hothouse-amped versions of the "jungles" in herni rousseua's paintings, themselves inspired by the hot house flowers of the botanical gardens--, many of which are memories however that turn out as one checks through bios--and others still that are indeed far more in the realm of warmhearted hallucination--
scattred about in the most purple passages are alwys some gems, insights, details--that are very striking and have that subtlety and illuinated quality of verlaine'
s best poems, with their musicality that each time one reads him after an absence--is evermore striking--
someof Verlaine's passages and remarks also, esp re Rimbaud and those who do not "get" Mallarme's works--are very catty in a in a kind of velvet-gloved claw manner that is quite funny--
his own brand of gay humor--sparkling like the twinkling in his eyes which lights up for al the suffering, very real, he endured--
thepssages re Rimbaud are quite amaing for what they do not say, as well as his overinflated and seemingly improvised on the spot versions of Rimbaud's family--Verlaine epicts them as welthy and important!--
the book includes additions that V made abit after the first ppearnces of the essays--
thebook is quite incredible in the sense that when verlaine was writing of many ofthepoets --they were barely known at all --
the artciles and the book it became as well as theinclusion of great chunks of poetry by each poet--was a huge turning point in french symbolist (as it is often called) poetry's becoming known to a much larger audince--as well as ensuring the publiction and digging up of Rimbau'ds poems, his MS as V is never tired of telling, scattered, like the rumors of R--to the winds--
among various persons who did answer his appeals for MS in other's hands-
and also to get some digsin at his ex-wife who had desposed for ever of someof R's letters and MS--
V also is the first person to writeof Corbiere as a major figure--
a thoroughly enjoyable and fascainting work--when you get tiredof someof V's more over abstinhe soaked passages, he always has a great oem for one to read--the book includes actually it s own form of amini-anthology of these poets within its pages as V thnkfully is a very generous one when it comes to putting the poetry itself center stage
the name in french, "les poetes damnes"-has forver fixed that image with a number of the writers--though itis hard now to think of mallarme as being cursed other than by the critics whom V takes apart with great relish--who have spurned the genius of M--
also V explains some aspectsof what mekes the poets' works unique and different, new to french prosody in a very clear way, far more illuminating than a great many other workson ths subject
it never ceases to amze me that Verlaine was Pol Pot's favorite poet--
before he became known to the world as pol pot--long before--this man previously so inviisble had been an excellently thought of lycee teacher of rech literature, especially poetry, which he had a great and ral passion for--
accounts by someof his former students--who could never reconcile the poetry lover who inpsired them though so--with the monster later on who abstoluetly rejected the west--
and
their own right--the passages of purple prose, like hothouse-amped versions of the "jungles" in herni rousseua's paintings, themselves inspired by the hot house flowers of the botanical gardens--, many of which are memories however that turn out as one checks through bios--and others still that are indeed far more in the realm of warmhearted hallucination--
scattred about in the most purple passages are alwys some gems, insights, details--that are very striking and have that subtlety and illuinated quality of verlaine'
s best poems, with their musicality that each time one reads him after an absence--is evermore striking--
someof Verlaine's passages and remarks also, esp re Rimbaud and those who do not "get" Mallarme's works--are very catty in a in a kind of velvet-gloved claw manner that is quite funny--
his own brand of gay humor--sparkling like the twinkling in his eyes which lights up for al the suffering, very real, he endured--
thepssages re Rimbaud are quite amaing for what they do not say, as well as his overinflated and seemingly improvised on the spot versions of Rimbaud's family--Verlaine epicts them as welthy and important!--
the book includes additions that V made abit after the first ppearnces of the essays--
thebook is quite incredible in the sense that when verlaine was writing of many ofthepoets --they were barely known at all --
the artciles and the book it became as well as theinclusion of great chunks of poetry by each poet--was a huge turning point in french symbolist (as it is often called) poetry's becoming known to a much larger audince--as well as ensuring the publiction and digging up of Rimbau'ds poems, his MS as V is never tired of telling, scattered, like the rumors of R--to the winds--
among various persons who did answer his appeals for MS in other's hands-
and also to get some digsin at his ex-wife who had desposed for ever of someof R's letters and MS--
V also is the first person to writeof Corbiere as a major figure--
a thoroughly enjoyable and fascainting work--when you get tiredof someof V's more over abstinhe soaked passages, he always has a great oem for one to read--the book includes actually it s own form of amini-anthology of these poets within its pages as V thnkfully is a very generous one when it comes to putting the poetry itself center stage
the name in french, "les poetes damnes"-has forver fixed that image with a number of the writers--though itis hard now to think of mallarme as being cursed other than by the critics whom V takes apart with great relish--who have spurned the genius of M--
also V explains some aspectsof what mekes the poets' works unique and different, new to french prosody in a very clear way, far more illuminating than a great many other workson ths subject
it never ceases to amze me that Verlaine was Pol Pot's favorite poet--
before he became known to the world as pol pot--long before--this man previously so inviisble had been an excellently thought of lycee teacher of rech literature, especially poetry, which he had a great and ral passion for--
accounts by someof his former students--who could never reconcile the poetry lover who inpsired them though so--with the monster later on who abstoluetly rejected the west--
and
May 22, 2024
Verlaine jublar osammanh盲ngande, men dessa artiklar blev succ茅 som manifest. De unga poeterna i slutet av 1800-talet ville inte fossileras i tidens sterila akademiska granit, och inte heller imitera Baudelaire. Han utforskade och chockerade med det makabra, men det var Baudelaires omr氓de.
Men det mest intresanta f枚r mig 盲r den kvinnliga poeten Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859) som jag inte ens k盲nde till, men som jag verkligen uppskattar! Hennes elegier fr氓n 1819 盲r innovativa f枚reg氓gnsverk. Yes!
Men det mest intresanta f枚r mig 盲r den kvinnliga poeten Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786-1859) som jag inte ens k盲nde till, men som jag verkligen uppskattar! Hennes elegier fr氓n 1819 盲r innovativa f枚reg氓gnsverk. Yes!
July 14, 2018
Los poetas malditos
Miy buen ensayo sobre estos grandes poetas. Como introducci贸n a su obra, genial. Recomendado a todos los que lean poes铆a
Miy buen ensayo sobre estos grandes poetas. Como introducci贸n a su obra, genial. Recomendado a todos los que lean poes铆a
August 24, 2019
No he sido fan de la escritura de Verlaine, creo que me esperaba algo mejor. El libro es casi un recopilatorio y yo me esperaba m谩s un ensayo pero me ha ayudado un poco para considerar cierta estructura para un pr贸ximo trabajo.
De todos los poetas quienes llamaron m谩s mi atenci贸n fueron Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Tristan Corbi猫re y Villiers de l鈥橧sle-Adam y aunque con quienes tengo m谩s acercamiento son Rimbaud y Verlaine no conect茅 en esta obra pero no desacredito el trabajo de todos los poetas, tal vez los disfrutar铆a m谩s en un poemario como hice con Una temporada en el infierno.
Me gustar铆a destacar un poema y un fragmento Desbordes-Valmore que me hicieron sentirme realmente identificada a pesar de todo mi "adormecimiento emocional":
La inquietud
驴Qu茅 es, pues, lo que me turba y qu茅 es lo que me espera?
En el pueblo, me aburro; me apena la ciudad.
Los goces de mi edad
no me alivian el tiempo que nunca se acelera.
No ha mucho, la amistad, la estudiosa virtud,
llenaban, sin esfuerzo, mis ocios apacibles.
驴Qu茅 objeto tendr谩n mis deseos indecibles?
Lo ignoro y lo persigo con creciente inquietud.
Si para m铆 la dicha no era la alegr铆a,
y hoy, teniendo las l谩grimas igual que la locura,
si tampoco la encuentro en mi melancol铆a,
驴d贸nde hallar la ventura?
Fragmento de A orillas del mar:
En m铆 clav贸 su f煤nebre mirada que me asombra
como la palidez de sus rasgos fatales
y dijo: 芦驴Soy como esos pa铆ses boreales
que han seis meses de luz y seis meses de sombra?
Sabr谩s que las soberbias mutuamente cambiadas
enturbian de los ojos la lectura precisa.
脕mame, t煤 que sabes que bajo mi sonrisa
soy semejante a esas tumbas abandonadas禄
De todos los poetas quienes llamaron m谩s mi atenci贸n fueron Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Tristan Corbi猫re y Villiers de l鈥橧sle-Adam y aunque con quienes tengo m谩s acercamiento son Rimbaud y Verlaine no conect茅 en esta obra pero no desacredito el trabajo de todos los poetas, tal vez los disfrutar铆a m谩s en un poemario como hice con Una temporada en el infierno.
Me gustar铆a destacar un poema y un fragmento Desbordes-Valmore que me hicieron sentirme realmente identificada a pesar de todo mi "adormecimiento emocional":
La inquietud
驴Qu茅 es, pues, lo que me turba y qu茅 es lo que me espera?
En el pueblo, me aburro; me apena la ciudad.
Los goces de mi edad
no me alivian el tiempo que nunca se acelera.
No ha mucho, la amistad, la estudiosa virtud,
llenaban, sin esfuerzo, mis ocios apacibles.
驴Qu茅 objeto tendr谩n mis deseos indecibles?
Lo ignoro y lo persigo con creciente inquietud.
Si para m铆 la dicha no era la alegr铆a,
y hoy, teniendo las l谩grimas igual que la locura,
si tampoco la encuentro en mi melancol铆a,
驴d贸nde hallar la ventura?
Fragmento de A orillas del mar:
En m铆 clav贸 su f煤nebre mirada que me asombra
como la palidez de sus rasgos fatales
y dijo: 芦驴Soy como esos pa铆ses boreales
que han seis meses de luz y seis meses de sombra?
Sabr谩s que las soberbias mutuamente cambiadas
enturbian de los ojos la lectura precisa.
脕mame, t煤 que sabes que bajo mi sonrisa
soy semejante a esas tumbas abandonadas禄
April 9, 2022
Malgr茅 ma note un peu basse j鈥檃i beaucoup 脿 dire sur ce livre. Encore un de mes coups de t锚tes de lecture, j鈥檃i pris le livre sans trop penser et je me suis mis 脿 le lire en 脿 peine une heure. Mon but principal 茅tait d鈥檈n savoir plus sur l鈥檋istoire de Paul Verlaine et Arthur Rimbaud mais je suis d茅莽u. J鈥檌magine je c鈥檈st stupide d鈥檃voir esp茅r茅 une explication claire venant de Verlaine mais bon c鈥檈st quand m锚me un po猫te donc c鈥檈st normal si la moiti茅 du livre est de la po茅sie. J鈥檃i entendu parler d鈥檜n film du m锚me nom que le livre qui parle uniquement de Verlaine et Rimbaud mais selon une de mes professeur je ne devrais pas le regarder pour la simple raison que je suis loin du public cible. Au lieu de simplement utiliser internet comme une personne normale pour avoir des d茅tails je me suis jet茅 sur un livre de po猫mes. Ce n鈥檈st pas mauvais juste trop complexe pour moi. J鈥檃ime bien les po猫mes de Marceline (j鈥檃i oubli茅 son nom de famille oups). Pas trop de regret car le livre est super court.
June 7, 2018
The Cursed Poets reads a bit like an academic project/mini-textbook 鈥� a guide that tells bits of the poets鈥� lives, what influenced their styles, followed by selections of their work as examples.
Poetry is not my favorite writing form, but I was intrigued by the idea of writers who lived outside society norms, and brought their rebellious embracement of counter culture and decadence into their writing (Rimbaud鈥檚 Evening Prayer and The Sitters are good examples). I suppose today they鈥檇 be considered 鈥渁lternative鈥� poets.
But to be able to fully appreciate this book one needs a substantial knowledge of the world of poetry 鈥� the writers, their works, and society as it was when they lived and wrote. That knowledge I don鈥檛 have, but I still had fun with parts of this book. What an intriguing scamp Paul Verlaine must鈥檝e been!
Poetry is not my favorite writing form, but I was intrigued by the idea of writers who lived outside society norms, and brought their rebellious embracement of counter culture and decadence into their writing (Rimbaud鈥檚 Evening Prayer and The Sitters are good examples). I suppose today they鈥檇 be considered 鈥渁lternative鈥� poets.
But to be able to fully appreciate this book one needs a substantial knowledge of the world of poetry 鈥� the writers, their works, and society as it was when they lived and wrote. That knowledge I don鈥檛 have, but I still had fun with parts of this book. What an intriguing scamp Paul Verlaine must鈥檝e been!
April 18, 2025
"Los poetas malditos" - Paul Verlaine Un ensayo en el que Verlaine analiza la obra de varios poetas considerados malditos, incluyendo a Rimbaud, Mallarm茅 y Corbi猫re. A trav茅s de su visi贸n personal, expone c贸mo el genio de estos escritores fue tambi茅n su condena
January 15, 2022
Una maravillosa obra para reivindicar un movimiento literario que parece solapado por el paso del tiempo.
January 21, 2023
Los poetas aqu铆 reunidos nos hablan de miseria, alcoholismo, lujuria... pero estos temas est谩n codificados en met谩foras complejas e im谩genes inextricables, y parcialmente en este simbolismo refinado radica su cruel encanto. No obstante, m谩s all谩 tan alto nivel literario, me llam贸 la atenci贸n la vida que estos escritores tuvieron que llevar para concebir semejante alquimia del lenguaje, pues a cambio de tan imponentes poemas, dieron su propia existencia.
December 3, 2023
love it. These are the poets that inspire me most, fin de siecle
Read
October 16, 2024Ch 81 P8
Your companion is not crazy! He saw him on the clear horizon.
Your companion is not crazy! He saw him on the clear horizon.
March 25, 2025
rimbaud world domination 馃敟
May 19, 2023
Los poetas malditos nos muestra una serie de an谩lisis y reflexiones de parte de Paul Verlaine hacia otros colegas poetas, mostr谩ndonos fragmentos de sus obras, sin duda es de lectura agradable y sirve para conocer un poco m谩s de la poes铆a.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.