Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters » (Revised)

Wallace Fowlie (1908-98) was the James B. Duke Professor of French Literature at Duke University. He was the author or translator of thirty books, including Rimbaud: A Critical Study and Rimbaud and Jim Morrison: The Rebel as Poet. Seth Whidden is assistant professor of French at Villanova University and coeditor-in-chief of Parade sauvage, the scholarly journal of Rimbaud studies.

The enfant terrible of French letters, Jean-Nicholas-Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) was a defiant and precocious youth who wrote some of the most remarkable prose and poetry of the nineteenth century, all before leaving the world of verse by the age of twenty-one. More than a century after his death, the young rebel-poet continues to appeal to modern readers as much for his turbulent life as for his poetry; his stormy affair with fellow poet Paul Verlaine and his nomadic adventures in eastern Africa are as iconic as his hallucinatory poems and symbolist prose.

The first translation of the poet's complete works when it was published in 1966, Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters introduced a new generation of Americans to the alienated genius—among them the Doors's lead singer Jim Morrison, who wrote to translator Wallace Fowlie to thank him for rendering the poems accessible to those who "don't read French that easily." Forty years later, the book remains the only side-by-side bilingual edition of Rimbaud's complete poetic works.

Thoroughly revising Fowlie's edition, Seth Whidden has made changes on virtually every page, correcting errors, reordering poems, adding previously omitted versions of poems and some letters, and updating the text to reflect current scholarship; left in place are Fowlie's literal and respectful translations of Rimbaud's complex and nontraditional verse. Whidden also provides a foreword that considers the heritage of Fowlie's edition and adds a bibliography that acknowledges relevant books that have appeared since the original publication. On its fortieth anniversary, Rimbaud remains the most authoritative—and now, completely up-to-date—edition of the young master's entire poetic ouvre.

List of Illustrations
Foreword (2005) by Seth Whidden
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography (a partial listing of works published since 1966)
Introduction (1966) by Wallace Fowlie

Poésies / Poetry

1869 / 1869
Les étrennes des orphelins / The Orphans' Gifts (New Year's)

1870 / 1870
Sensation / Sensation
Soleil et chair / Sun and Flesh
Ophélie / Ophelia
Venus Anadyomène / Venus Anadyomene
Première soirée / The First Evening
Les reparties de Nina / Nina's Replies
"Morts de Quatre-vingt-douze [. . .]" / "Dead of '92 [. . .]"
Les effarés / The Frightened Ones
Roman / Novel
Rêvé pour l'hiver / A Dream for Winter
Le buffet / The Cupboard
L'éclatante victoire de Sarrebrück / The Dazzling Victory of Sarrebruck
Le maline / The Sly Girl
Au Cabaret-Vert / At the Cabaret-Vert
Le dormeur du val / The Sleeper in the Valley
À la musique / To Music
Bal des pendus / Dance of the Hanged Men
Le châtiment de Tartufe / Tartufe's Punishment
Le forgeron / The Blacksmith
Ma bohème (Fantaisie) / My Bohemian Life (Fantasy)
Le mal / Evil
Rages de Césars / Caesars' Rages

Poèmes datés de 1871 - début 1872 ou dans des lettres de mai ou juin 1871 / Poems dated 1871 - early 1872 or in letters from May or June 1871
Le coeur volé / The Stolen Heart
Chant de guerre parisien / Parisian War Song
Mes petitesamoureuses / My Little Lovers
Accroupissements / Squattings
Les poètes de sept ans / Seven-year-old Poets
L'orgie parisienne ou Paris se repeuple / Parisian Orgy or Paris is Repopulated
Les pauvres À l'église / The Poor in Church
Les soeurs de charité / Sisters of Charity
L'homme juste / The Just Man
Les premières Communions / First Communions
Ce qu'on dit au Poète À propos de fleurs / What is Said to the Poet Concerning Flowers
Les mains de Jeanne-Marie / The Hands of Jeanne-Marie

Poèmes non datés (fin 1870 - début 1872?) / Undated poems (late 1870 - early 1872?)
Les assis / The Sedated Men
Le bateau ivre / The Drunken Boat
Les chercheuses de poux / The Seekers of Lice
Les douaniers / The Customs Men
"L'étoile a pleuré rose [. . .]" / "The star wept rose-colored [. . .]"
Oraison du soir / Evening Prayer
Tête de faune / Faun's Head
Voyelles / Vowels

Album zutique (fin 1871 - début 1872?) / Album called "zutique" (end 1871 - 1872?)
Sonnet du trou du cul / Sonnet to an Asshole
Lys / Lily
Vu À Rome / Seen in Rome
Fête galante / Love Feast
"J'occupais un wagon de troisième [. . .]" / "I occupied a third-class carriage [. . .]"
"Je préfère sans doute [. . .]" / "Doubtless I prefer [. . .]"
"L'Humanité chaussait [. . .]" / "Humanity was putting shoes on [. . .]"
Conneries / Nasty Jokes
Jeune goinfre / Young Glutton
Paris / Paris
Cocher ivre / Drunken Coachman
Vieux de la vieille! / The Old Man of the Old Woman!
état de siège? / State of Siege?
Le balai / The Brush
Exil / Exile
L'angelot maudit / The Outcast Cherub
"Mais enfin, c' [. . .]" / "But finally, th [. . .]"
"Les soirs d'été [. . .]" / "Summer evenings [. . .]"
Bouts-rimés / Rhymed endings
"Aux livres de cchevvet [. . .]" / "To the bedside books [. . .]"
Hypotyposes saturniennes, ex Belmontet / Saturnian Hypotyposes, taken from Belmontet
Les remembrances du vieillard idiot / Memories of the Simple-minded Old Man
Ressouvenir / Remembrance

D'autres poèmes de la période dite "zutique" (1871-1872?) / Other poems from the period called "zutique" (1871-1872?)
"Nos fesses ne sont pas les leurs [. . .]" / "Our backsides are not theirs are not theirs [. . .]"
"Les anciens animaux [. . .]" / "Ancient animals [. . .]"
Vers pour les lieux / Verses for Such Places
"De ce siège si mal tourné [. . .]" / "Of this seat so poorly made [. . .]"
"Quand le fameux Tropmann [. . .]" / "When the famous Tropmann [. . .]"

Poèmes datés de, transcritts ou publiés en 1872 / Poems dated, transcribed, or published in 1872
Comédie de la soif / Comedy of Thirst
Bonne pensée du matin / A Good Thought in the Morning
La rivière de Cassis / The Cassis River
Larme / Tear
Patience / Patience
Chanson de la plus haute tour / Song of the Highest Tower
L'éternité / Eternity
âge d'or / Golden Age
Jeune ménage / Young Couple
"Est-elle almée? [. . .]" / "Is she an almeh? [. . .]"
Fêtes de la fa