Complete Poems: Charles Baudelaire (Paperback)

~ Charles Baudelaire (Author), Walter Martin (Afterword) "Lorsque, par un decret des puissances supremes,..." (more)
Key Phrases: Race de Cain

Editorial Reviews

Review

....in certain respects [Martins] translation stands as the best available rendering of the complete poems..
–The New Criterion --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

Including all poems published in the previous three editions, this comprehensive new translation of  Baudelaire's poetry is both vivid and authoritative. This dual-language volume presents both the original French poems as well as their translations.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd. (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1857549392
• ISBN-13: 978-1857549393
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #219,636 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Evil Rhymes, May 3, 2003

By	Arch Llewellyn "arch-l" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Poems (Paperback)

What I like best about this admittedly eccentric translation is the way Walter Martin renders the poems in rhyme. Baudelaire's extreme content--his embrace of putrefaction, filth, sadism and ennui as fit stuff for poetry--owes much of its impact to the tight, disciplined meter he chose for his medium. Most Baudelaire translations don't capture this classical edge in English, turning the poems into free verse or prose. While Martin has to bend the exact meaning a little (often a lot) to get the English to fit, on the whole he does an impressive job of making the verse sound exact and controlled but not too sing-songy. There's no ponderous introduction to bug you either, just a short & highly personal 'Afterthoughts' section with some intriguing insights. This isn't the only translation you'll want to read, but it recovers a side of modernity's bad boy that's hard to find anywhere else.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good effort at translation, June 28, 2002

By	Eric Schellenberg (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Complete Poems (Hardcover)

This is the first complete translation of Les Fleurs du Mal that I've seen which captures both Baudelaire's symbolic rhyming and his strict syllable count (10 per line in this edition vs. Baudelaire's usual 12).

Martin's translation could be improved by following Baudelaire's order of ideas and literal diction more closely, but he captures the spirit of each poem in a way that makes this volume stand out from most of the previous efforts I've seen.

If you're looking for a Baudelaire translation by a single author, this is a good one to buy.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best translation of Baudelaire, May 14, 2005

By	Reynolds Potter "Read The Best - Skip The Rest" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Complete Poems (Paperback)

This is by far the best translation of Baudelaire's Complete Poems. Not only is the translation achieved in rhymed, metered verse, but Martin captures the essence of this colossus of French poetry. Please ignore "Rosie" the naysayer below who seems to have a limited background in translation, poetry, and Baudelaire. Better yet - here's a challenge for her: Translate Baudelaire's Complete Poems and offer it to the public. After all, you claim to "know French." When you're published we can review your efforts. Ploughshares called Martin's work a "vivid and formally authoritative translation."