Synopses & Reviews
Poetry. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the French by Donald Revell. Winner of the 18th Annual PEN USA Award in Translation (2008). In this new translation of Arthur Rimbaud--illustrious among the 19th century symbolists and one of the most influential poets upon the modern mind--Donald Revell captures the child-like wonder and tortured, revelatory despair of these poems, which changed, in so many ways, how we think of what a poem can say and mean. Revell's choice of a most immediate vernacular gives the modern reader all the heady brilliance in Rimbaud's rebelliousness. Yet, as Revell explains in his essay "Outrageous Innocence, Innocence Outraged," which is offered as afterword in this translation of A SEASON IN HELL, Rimbaud's rebellious sensuality was redolent with the oracular. Revell's essay offers the story of Rimbaud--his wildly creative youth, his years of breaking with all traditions of morality and decorum, his fame as the genius of French letters who is identified as one of the creators of free verse because of his rhythm experiments in prose poems. And Revell's essay places these poems in the larger historical narrative of the literature of rebellious youth that has molded much of our contemporary culture. Published with the French on facing pages, this translation will open many readers to the pleasure of reading this wild child who was remembered after his death as one of the masters of French poetry.
Review
Winner of The Pen USA Translation Award for 2008
Review
"Revell's method fits Rimbaud's near-madness. . . . This is an inspired new version of a strange, harsh classic." Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
In this new translation of Arthur Rimbaud illustrious among the 19th-century symbolists and one of the most influential poets upon the modern mind Donald Revell captures the child-like wonder and tortured, revelatory despair of these poems, which changed, in so many ways, how we think of what a poem can say and mean. Revell s choice of a most immediate vernacular gives the modern reader all the heady brilliance in Rimbaud s rebelliousness. Yet, as Revell explains in his essay Outrageous Innocence, Innocence Outraged, which is offered as afterword in this translation of A Season in Hell, Rimbaud s rebellious sensuality was redolent with the oracular. Revell s essay offers the story of Rimbaud his wildly creative youth, his years of breaking with all traditions of morality and decorum, his fame as the genius of French letters who is identified as one of the creators of free verse because of his rhythm experiments in prose poems. And Revell s essay places these poems in the larger historical narrative of the literature of rebellious youth that has molded much of our contemporary culture. Published with the French on facing pages, this translation will open many readers to the pleasure of reading this wild child who was remembered after his death as one of the masters of French poetry."
Synopsis
Using immediate vernacular that gives modern readers all the heady brilliance of Rimbaud's rebelliousness, this new translation contains the last poems written by one of the most influential poets before he abandoned poetry at the age of 20. Revell's essay, Outrageous Innocence, Innocence Outraged,” is offered as postscript, revealing the story of Rimbaudhis wildly creative youth, his years of breaking with traditional morality and decorum, his fame as the genius of French letters, and his early death. Analysis places these poems in the larger historical narrative of the literature of rebellious youth that has molded much of contemporary culture. Published with the original French version on facing pages, this translation will offer many the pleasure of reading this wild-child, long remembered as one of the masters of French poetry.
About the Author
Arthur Rimbaud is the author of Illuminations. He is considered the most outrageous and iconoclastic poet of French symbolism and one of the originators of free verse. Donald Revell is the author of Pennyweight Windows and My Mojave, which won the Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Prize; translator of two volumes of Guillaume Apollinaire's poetry; and poetry editor of Colorado Review. He is twice winner of the PEN Center USA Award for Poetry, a former fellow of the Ingram Merrill and Guggenheim Foundations, has twice been granted fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment of the Arts, and is a professor of English and director of creative writing programs at the University of Utah. He lives in Las Vegas.