Customer Reviews

99 Poems in Translation

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I thought this anthology of translated poems was fantastic. As a layperson and ignorant of most languages, I can't comment on the fidelity of many of the translations to the originals. But in terms of their impact in English, the great majority of the translations in this book qualify as some of the best poetry I've ever read.

One minor criticism I have of this book is that it doesn't reproduce the poems anthologised in their original language. That's a shame. For the informed reader, it is always useful to know how close a translation is to the original. On a related note, it would've been useful to have a preface by the translators telling us what criteria they used to decide which poems to include. But these are minor quibbles.

The translations in this anthology are clearly the best of their art. This is a brilliant book. Buy it.

This selection of foreign language poems was picked by playwright Harold Pinter, along with the Astbury and Godbert, directors of Greville Press. This does not represent the most famous poems, but rather very interesting personal tastes. Arranged alphabetically, the book starts with the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova ("But the exile is for ever pitiful to me, / like a prisoner, like a sick man. / Your road is dark, wanderer; alien corn smells of wormwood.") and ends somberly with 9th century Chinese poet Yuan Chen An Elegy "We joked, long ago, about one of us dying, / But suddenly, before me eyes, you are gone.").

Along the way, are some interesting juxtapositions: "The Lark" by de Ventadron is next to :"The Vulture" by Blok; Garcia Lorca's "The faithless wife" next to Li Po "The River Merchant's Wife: a Letter:, and Edith Sodergran';s "Hell" is next to Gaspara Stampa "All the planets in heaven, all the stars". So this book is a nice variety, and will introduce you to some new poets.