Rimbaud called Charles Baudelaire 'le premier voyant, roi des poetes, un vrai dieu'. The history of modern poetry begins with him. This is a comprehensive translation of all Baudelaire's poetry, excluding only juvenilia, occasional verse and work of doubtful attribution. Baudelaire contemplated a volume of poems that would 'launch him into the future like a cannon-ball'. Here it is in vivid and formally authoritative translation.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
... in certain respects [Martins] translation stands as the best available rendering of the complete poems. -- The New Criterion
...in certain respects [Martins] translation stands as the best available rendering of the complete poems. -- The New Criterion
...in certain respects [Martins] translation stands as the best available rendering of the complete poems. -- The New Criterion
About the Author
Charles Baudelaire is one of France's best-known poets whose most famous work is the verse sequence "Les Fleurs du Mal." Walter Martin is a poet and a translator.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Evil Rhymes,
This review is from: Complete Poems (Fyfield Books) (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.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good effort at translation,
By Eric Schellenberg (Vancouver, BC Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Complete Poems (Fyfield Books) (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.
6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best translation of Baudelaire,
By
This review is from: Complete Poems (Fyfield Books) (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."
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
Lorsque, par un decret des puissances supremes, Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Race de Cain New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Lorsque, par un decret des puissances supremes, Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Race de Cain New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 12
books:
See all 12 books this book cites
85
books
cite this book:
See all 85 books citing this book
- Complete Poems: Charles Baudelaire by Charles Baudelaire in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Front Matter (3)
- Edgar Allan Poe by Charles Baudelaire in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and Back Matter
- Charles Baudelaire: Complete Poems (Poetry Pleiade) by Walter Martin in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Edgar Poe and His Critics (Notable American Authors) by Sarah Helen Whitman in Front Matter
- Imagination and Language: Collected Essays on Constant, Baudelaire, Nerval and Flaubert by Alison Fairlie in Back Matter
See all 12 books this book cites
- Best Words, Best Order, 2nd Edition: Essays on Poetry by Stephen Dobyns in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry by Stephen Dobyns in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness by Caroline Evans on page 136, page 250, and Back Matter
- Elizabeth Bishop: Her Artistic Development by Thomas J. Travisano in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Baudelaire in English (Poets in Translation, Penguin) by Charles-Pierre Baudelaire in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 85 books citing this book
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
