Customer Reviews

Collected Poems (French and English Edition)

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I bought this volume for only two reasons, that it had the french with unobstrusive footnoted translations; and that it was cheaper than the fowlie.

This has turned out to be quite a mistake. I had thought that "Collected Poems" meant that every known poem would be included. Well, this volume doesn't. I couldn't find avertissment (ces ecritures ci sont des un toute jeune homme...) anywhere in it, and wondered if it was by some other French author. I later found it in the Fowlie edition.

If you have a good deal of French, this may not be too bad an introductory edition, but if you had any French, you'd want a complete edition. Don't buy this book.

I neither care to fret with regard to missing lines of certain poems within, but due to the uncalled for hue and cry concerning this transcribed text I must take great offense. This translation is six-fold more erudite than Wyatt Mason's "Rimbaud: Complete." This happens to be one of Peguins best translations as opposed to its hideous Goethe's works.
The exquisite locution more than compensates for the parts from which the translator exempted inclusion. I would rather see an excellent translation (amended to convey sophistry in English)than a more accurate but slovenly done rendition of detriment by inordinate dedication to accuracy.

Put simply, I have read most other translations of Rimbaud. In my opinion, Oliver Bernard and Paul Schmidt are the best. Best of luck.

It's a scandal that Penguin are keeping Oliver Bernard's lame translations in print. His are the worst translations of Rimbaud that I've ever read - lazy, limp and boring, and Rimbaud in French is _never_ boring.

If you want a more-or-less complete and faithful translation of Rimbaud, try the Wallace Fowlie edition. But don't waste your money on Bernard.

though not the best translation i have read ... the Bertrand Mathieu translation cited below is by far the worst i have read. try the Paul Schmidt translation.

This book collects Rimbaud's poetry focusing mainly on the original French poems. The English translations are placed below the French poems in smaller type. This allows the reader to view Rimbaud's work as he wanted it seen. And the translations are placed more like footnotes (although still easily read). The translations are also some of the best. Although Schmidt did do a good job, as well as Varese, Oliver Bernard's translation comes closest to the orginal French as possible. I recommend this book if you would like to see Rimbaud's work as he originally wrote it with translations added as an addition to the work. (Also, there are helpful footnotes that aid in finding meanings in some of Rimbaud's writing as well as a biography of the poet.)

Without a doubt, Penguins Collected poems of Arthur Rimbaud is one of the most self-flatulent collaborations of any poet...this says nothing about Rimbaud, I believe Arthur was one of the most brilliant and furthermore inspirational poets of ANY time... But it is this anthology that has botched translations to the point of misrepresenting Rimbaud's Raucous and original voice, turning him into an Aristocrat of language when it is well know he was a vagabond, with a street smart vocabulary...furthermore, Rimbaud's poem Depart, was utterly underscored by Bernard's trnaslation, leaving out entire lines written by the poet.....if you need a better source for Rimbaud's work, refernce further A Season in Hell & Illuminations Translated by Bertrand Mathieu.....thank you and goodnight.