Customer Reviews

One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine: A Bilingual Edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A literal translation of Verlaine from the French would be leaden. (But if you want one that approaches just that, see the Oxford Classics version .) All the same, Shapiro strays too far for me from what Verlaine wrote. These translations are often gorgeous, and sometimes a tad florid. I would have liked to see Shapiro translate more closely to the orginal while maintaining the grace he attempts, and even frequently reaches, here. (Is this possible in translations?) However beautiful, this is not Verlaine.

The notes at book's end , expaining some of the translator's decitions and choices, are quite interesting and worth reading, even though I don't always agree with his approach. ...

Very good book. I encourage reading it becuase it is an excursion from today's busy life.

I wanted a book that would provide decent, close translations of the original French, since there are too few of these out there with respect to Verlaine. As a poet, I recognize the difficulty in translating poetry, but even so, and with an incredibly limited knowledge of French, it's clear that these translations are not at all accurate, but mostly just based on the whimsical wishes of the translator, who seems to have intentionally disregarded many straightforward French words and phrases that could have easily be put into English, without damaging the poem as a whole.

I felt scammed, and would return this if it weren't for my laziness. I never expected to complain about poetry translations because the process really is an art form and one that is very difficult, but this is simply too much.

Go to A. S. Kline's FREE Poetry Archive instead.

I was named after Paul Verlaine so I of course love the book! I recommend it to anyone!

The downside to translation is that we always loose, in some amount, something of what the author(poet)is expressing. The translator did not try to maintain Velaine's essence...he tried to create a whole new poem from what he understood Verlaine is expressing.

The reader below from Puero Rico could simply not be more wrong--no less a poet than Seamus Heaney has praised quite highly the work of Norman Shapiro, who is universally recognized as one of our premiere translators of French literature, easily on a level with Richard Howard and Richard Wilbur and W.S. Merwin. Mr. Shapiro has won a National Book Award for his work, and his four volumes (thus far) of La Fontaine are superb, dazzling!

So, ignore the ill-informed reviewer below and proceed with confidence! And check out "Fifty Fables," "Fifty More Fables," "Once Again, La Fontaine," and "La Fontaine's Bawdy"--all translated by Shapiro--a heroic endeavor, and as good as French literature gets in English!!!