Customer Reviews

Paroles: Selected Poems (City Lights Pocket Poets Series) (French Edition)

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This is a fantastic collection of poems. Ferlinghetti did a fabulous job translating these poems into English. Jacques Prevert is a greatly neglected French poet who spoke volumes with his verse. This bilingual edition is a great gift for any lover of poetry. Poems like Pater Noster and Flowers and Wreaths are beautiful verses. Prevert is simple in language but amazingly poignant at his best. He knew the value of directness. These poems are like little jewels of human wisdom. Human Effort, I Am As I Am, Song of The Jailer, etc. There are many highlights in this book. This often maligned, overlooked poet deserves to be reread today. Many who give this book a couple honest reads will probably be impressed by the sheer poetic wonder of this volume. I would state that because it is bilingual, students of the French language might also find value in finding the translations en face with the original. This is a great package all around.

"Paroles: Selected Poems," by Jacques Prevert, is Number 9 in the Pocket Poets Series from City Lights Books. This volume is translated by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who also contributes a "Translator's Note." This is a bilingual edition, with the French and English versions of the poems on facing pages. The back cover notes that Prevert's "Paroles" was first published in 1946; Ferlinghetti states that many of these poems "grew out of World War II and the Occupation in France."

I noticed some recurring themes and motifs in this volume. Prevert is very concerned with human pain and suffering; also, there are many references and allusions to war. There is a real iconoclastic streak running through this book. Although many of the poems have a surreal, whimsical quality, much of this poetry is also firmly anchored in tangible realities: an orange, a raincoat, a cigarette, "the faint sound / of a hardboiled egg cracked on a tin counter." Some of the poems have an almost haiku-like quality, saying much with an economy of words.

There were a number of poems that I found particularly striking. "Song" had a joyful, transcendent quality. "Inventory" had an experimental flavor that reminded me somewhat of Gertrude Stein's work. "I've Seen Some of Them" is like a Whitmanesque litany, but with a darker, cryptic, and tragic tone. "Picasso's Magic Lantern" uses words in odd and startling combinations; this poem eptomizes the role of the poet as a sort of prophet who evokes an altered state of consciousness through his creative process. Prevert's voice in "Paroles," although sometimes dark, is overall compassionate and even tender. He seems to be intent on capturing the contradictions, absurdities, beauty, and despair of the early 20th century in his poetry.

Our final unit of the year is a sampling of Prevert's poems from Paroles, and my 8th grade students love reading his poetry in the original French. Using Ferlinghetti's translations as companion pieces helps those students who don't "get it" appreciate both Prevert and his use of language. I highly recommend this little gem!

A beautiful book of deceptively simple poems. It's often as close to taking a photo as words can get.

I had become very interested in French poetry but was not sure who to read that was more modern. I first heard of Prevert in my French text book. They had included some biographical information on Prevert and one of his poems for students to read due to its simplicity of language. This was the tip I was looking for, and I was very curious to read more of this poet--and I am glad I did!
I would compare Prevert to W.C. Williams in the sense that they both find the profound in the mundane. This is an ability that I greatly admire in a poet, and Prevert has the gift of being able to illuminate the beauty that passes us unnoticed at all times. If you are a long time lover of great poetry or are simply looking to expand your horizons you will not be disappointed with this book. Prevert and his poetry span the entire range of humanity--the young love him as well as the old, the academic as well as the average reader. He is accessable to all, and loved by all.