Collected Poems [Paperback]

Stephane Mallarme (Author), Henry Weinfield (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 25, 1996

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) is one of the giants of nineteenth-century French poetry. Leader of the Symbolist movement, he exerted a powerful influence on modern literature and thought, which can be traced in the works of Paul Valéry, W.B. Yeats, and Jacques Derrida. From his early twenties until the time of his death, Mallarmé produced poems of astonishing originality and beauty, many of which have become classics.
In the Collected Poems, Henry Weinfield brings the oeuvre of this European master to life for an English-speaking audience, essentially for the first time. All the poems that the author chose to retain are here, superbly rendered by Weinfield in a translation that comes remarkably close to Mallarmé's own voice. Weinfield conveys not simply the meaning but the spirit and music of the French originals, which appear en face.
Whether writing in verse or prose, or inventing an altogether new genre--as he did in the amazing "Coup de Dés"--Mallarmé was a poet of both supreme artistry and great difficulty. To illuminate Mallarmé's poetry for twentieth-century readers, Weinfield provides an extensive commentary that is itself an important work of criticism. He sets each poem in the context of the work as a whole and defines the poems' major symbols. Also included are an introduction and a bibliography.
Publication of this collection is a major literary event in the English-speaking world: here at last is the work of a major figure, masterfully translated.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To be translated, the work of Mallarme must be transmuted, leading to a poetry just as weirdly and irreducibly English as his is in French. But alchemical operations are conducted according to rules, and poet Weinfield (Sonnets Elegiac and Satirical) has chosen as his focus Mallarme's elaboration of rhyme and meter. Since poetic forms are as indigenous to their languages as the senses and sounds of words themselves (and since English has many fewer rhyme-words than French), this is a brave undertaking. Mallarme's work subverts the standardized, highly rhetorical conventions of traditional French verse; he uses the confines of poetic form to set free and play with private images and syntactical or semantic ambiguities. English poetry is much less formal-many of the conventions it once observed have fallen into abeyance during the last century. By now, there are relatively few poets with a sufficient command of form to use it against the grain in the manner of Mallarme. Unfortunately, Weinfield is not among them: his rhymes are flat and obtrusive, he lacks prosodic tact, and his choice of diction, which appears propelled more by the dictionary than by the drift of the poems, aggravates matters.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Mallarme was a French Symbolist poet of the 19th century who had much to do with molding the literature of our times. Until now, however, his writings have been unevenly and incompletely represented in English. This collection, put together and translated by poet/scholar Weinfield, makes the poems of Mallarme accessible to late 20th-century readers for the first time. This hefty volume contains Weinfield's introduction; the poems and prose poems themselves, with English and French versions en face; and a meticulous poem-by-poem critique and commentary. By staying close to the language and meter of the originals, Weinfield has artfully retained their flavor. In 1866, when Mallarme was composing "Afternoon of a Faun," which the French poet Paul Valery considered the greatest poem in all of French literature, Mallarme wrote, "When a poem is ripe, it will drop free. You can see that I'm imitating the laws of nature." Throughout, the poet's creative process imitates nature as it ripens into the fresh fruits of his poetry. Essential for all libraries that collect poetry in English translation.
Judy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., Hayward
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (November 25, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520207114
• ISBN-13: 978-0520207110
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,554,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you want Mallarmé, this is the one to get., March 29, 2001

By 

Steph (philly) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collected Poems (Paperback)

This a beautiful edition of the COMPLETE poems of one of the most important French symbolist poets. If only all French poetry books could be printed in handsome, large-format bilingual editions like this! The translation is not even half-bad, with Weinfeld doing his best to maintain the actual flavor of Mallarmé's words. Best of all, the poems are translated in a faithful stylistic way-- prose poems STAY in prose, and the early-surrealist poem "Un Coup de Des" keeps its complex typesetting. The commentary is substantial and the poems are arranged in order of the books they appeared in, which makes it easier to follow the progression. Sometimes it seems that Mallarmé is left out of his rightful place in poetry, and this edition should help to alleviate that problem.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Poet...double-minded visionary...enchanting chanter..., April 21, 2003

By 

"acominatus" (Johnson City, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collected Poems (Paperback)

This volume of COLLECTED POEMS by Stephane Mallarme
and translated with commentary by Henry Weinfield
is a joy and a treasure. For it contains Mallarme
poems from various of his collections: First Poems,
Satirical Parnassus, The Contemporary Parnassus,
Other Poems, Album Leaves, Street Songs, Several
Sonnets, Homages and Tombs, Other Poems and
Sonnets, Poems in Prose, and A Throw of the Dice.
The best appreciation of Mallarme is cited by
Henry Weinfield in his "Introduction" to this
volume. The comments were by Paul Valery (and
were about Mallarme): "This poet was the least
-primitive- of all poets, yet it came about that
by bringing words together in an unfamiliar, strangely
melodious, and as it were stupefying chant -- by the
musical splendor of his verse as well as by its
amazing richness -- he restored the most powerful
impression to be derived from primitive poetry: that
of the -magical formula-. An exquisite analysis of
his art must have led him toward a doctrine, and
something like a synthesis, of incantation."
This volume contains the texts of the poems in
French on the right-hand side of each page -- and
the translation in English on the left-hand side.
Mallarme is an extremely interesting poet, artist,
and human thinker/creator, for he has a spiritual
crisis in which he came away perceiving: "Yes, I
-know-, we are merely empty forms of matter, but
we are indeed sublime in having invented God and
our soul. So sublime, my friend, that I want to
gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists,
and yet launching itself madly into Dream, despite
its knowledge that Dream has no existence, extolling
the Soul and all the divine impresssion of that kind
which have collected within us from the beginning of
time and proclaiming, in the face of the Void, which
is truth, these glorious lies." Yet, even this, is
not precisely what Mallarme finally winds up doing...
for his is a "quest for Beauty and for a transcendent
Ideal and the tragic vision on which that quest is
based."
And all of this is enveloped in the most beautiful
sounds and images...charming and mystifying...for he
is also hermetic in his approach, "Everything that is
sacred and that wishes to remain so, must envelop
itself in mystery."
Here is a portion from "The Afternoon of a Faun" in
English -- then in French:
"...through the motionless and weary swoon/ Of
stifling heat that suffocates the morning,/ Save
from my flute, no waters murmuring/ In harmony flow
out into the groves;" -- "par l'immodible et lasse
pamoison/ Suffoquant de chaleurs le matin frais sil
lutte/ Ne murmure point d'eau que ne verse ma flute/
Au bosquet arrose d'accords;".
"...the ancient technique of verse -- for which I
retain a religious veneration and to which I atribute
the empire of passion and of dreams..."

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Edition, July 10, 2011

By 

Kevin F. Dolan "Yogi K" (Bayonne) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Stephane Mallarme Collected Poems Translated And With A Commentary by Henry Weinfield (Hardcover)

This is a beautiful edition that is well translated with exceptional commentaries by Henry Weinfield. It was a true pleasure reading this book in light of the author's influence on Maurice Blanchot, which was my primary 'project.' The nice litte surprise here was the commentary by Weinfield in which he displays his ability to place each poem within an historical context and a theoretical/interpretive framework. Finally, the use of font and spacing by the publishing house is nearly perfect, just as Stephane intended.