Authors: Paul Verlaine, Norman R. Shapiro
ISBN-13: 9780226853451, ISBN-10: 0226853454
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date Published: November 2000
Edition: 1
Norman R. Shapiro is a professor of Romance languages and literatures at Wesleyan University. Among his many translations are Four Farces by Georges Feydeau, which was nominated for a National Book Award, The Fabulists French: Verse Fables of Nine Centuries, named Distinguished Book of the Year by the American Literary Translators' Association, and Charles Baudelaire: Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du mal, the last published by the University of Chicago Press.
French poet Paul Verlaine, a major representative of the Symbolist Movement during the latter half of the nineteenth century, was one of the most gifted and prolific poets of his time. Norman Shapiro's superb translations display Verlaine's ability to transform into timeless verse the essence of everyday life and make evident the reasons for his renown in France and throughout the Western world.
The strength of this selection lies not only in its sweep, but in its delicate attention to each poem. Shapiro's unique translations of this whimsical, agonized music are more than adequate to bring the multifarious Verlaine to new generation of English speakers.
List of Illustrations | ||
Preface | ||
My Familiar Dream | 4 | |
Seascape | 6 | |
Night Scene | 8 | |
Sunsets | 10 | |
Mystical Evening Twilight | 12 | |
Sentimental Stroll | 14 | |
Autumn Song | 16 | |
The Shepherd's Hour | 18 | |
Woman and Cat | 20 | |
A Dahlia | 22 | |
Nevermore | 24 | |
Moonlight | 28 | |
Pantomime | 30 | |
On the Grass | 32 | |
The Lane | 34 | |
Strolling | 36 | |
Innocents We | 38 | |
Cortege | 40 | |
Seashells | 42 | |
Puppets | 44 | |
Sailing | 46 | |
The Faun | 48 | |
Mandolin | 50 | |
For Clymene | 52 | |
Colombine | 54 | |
Love Cast Down | 58 | |
In Muted Tone | 60 | |
Lovers' Chat | 62 | |
"Morning star, before you pale..." | 66 | |
"Among the trees..." | 68 | |
"A Saint set in her stained-glass glow..." | 70 | |
"I used to wander aimlessly..." | 72 | |
"It's the languorous ecstasy..." | 76 | |
"Like city's rain, my heart..." | 78 | |
"Bright in the evening's gray and pinkish blur..." | 80 | |
"So sad my heart, so sad it was..." | 82 | |
"Covering the land..." | 84 | |
"Reflections in the fogbound rivulet..." | 88 | |
Walcourt | 90 | |
Charleroi | 92 | |
Green | 96 | |
Spleen | 98 | |
Streets I | 100 | |
Streets II | 102 | |
"Beauty of women, weakness, pale soft skin..." | 106 | |
"A vast, black lethargy..." | 108 | |
"Above the roof the sky is fair..." | 110 | |
"The horn's sound in the wood sobs dolefully..." | 112 | |
"The wind whips through the bushes, green..." | 114 | |
"The hedges billow like the sea's..." | 116 | |
"'The city!' Gaudy cluster of white stones..." | 118 | |
Pierrot | 122 | |
The Skeleton | 124 | |
Ars Poetica | 126 | |
Allegory | 130 | |
Circumspection | 132 | |
Languor | 134 | |
Prologue | 136 | |
"Your voice was deep and low..." | 140 | |
For Georges Verlaine | 144 | |
Allegory | 148 | |
Spring | 150 | |
Summer | 152 | |
For Mademoiselle | 154 | |
False Impression | 158 | |
Other | 162 | |
Tantalized | 166 | |
The Last Stanza | 168 | |
In the Style of Paul Verlaine | 170 | |
Limbo | 172 | |
Loins | 176 | |
The Last "Fete Galante" | 178 | |
Recollection of Manchester | 182 | |
For Edmond Lepelletier | 184 | |
For Arthur Rimbaud | 186 | |
For Bibi-Puree | 188 | |
"In Mary's humble ear..." | 192 | |
"Yes, despite your cruel excess..." | 198 | |
"I'm poorer than I've ever been..." | 202 | |
"True, we don't know when to quit..." | 204 | |
"Blonde? Brown? Which is your hair?..." | 206 | |
"You believe in superstitions..." | 208 | |
"Lover, when you look for lice..." | 210 | |
"I dreamed of you last night; and you..." | 212 | |
For Charles Baudelaire | 216 | |
"You've often been unkind..." | 220 | |
"That firm-fleshed belly that has never borne..." | 224 | |
Last Hope | 230 | |
"When we go - if I see her yet again..." | 234 | |
"It's thanks to you I see how I..." | 236 | |
Accompanying a Sketch (The Siege of Paris) | 238 | |
On a Copy of Les Fleurs du mal | 240 | |
Song for the Ladies | 244 | |
Fog! | 246 | |
Sonnet to Weep Over | 250 | |
A Drink Song | 252 | |
Another Drink Song | 254 | |
Dream | 256 | |
Awakening | 258 | |
Death | 262 | |
Quatrain | 266 | |
Notes | 269 | |
Acknowledgments | 285 | |
Index of Titles and First Lines | 287 |