Customer Reviews

Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters

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I really don't understand any of the negative reviews on this page. Fowlie's translations are considered some of the best, even by scholars, and yes, this is the version that has inspired many other artists, actors, musicians, poets, and so forth. Fowlie's introduction is fitting and his inclusion of selected letters gives us an insightful look into the very language of Rimbaud.

This is why I wanted to learn French. This keeps me learning French, and Rimbauds poems are absolutely stunning. If you want a good introduction to Rimbaud, select this volume of translations and then read Enid Starkie's wonderful biography of Rimbaud. Keep in mind this simple philosophy: the search for truth, history, and art is sometimes elusive and beyond our grasp. Rimbaud, to a certain extent, is always going to be elusive to the modern reader, and certainly personal and controversial for many reasons. However don't let this elusiveness stop you from buying this wonderful book.

While the Penguin and Oxford Classics editions claim to be complete, they are not. This edition has several later works that those other editions simply do not include.

The literal translation provided does not attempt to be its own art, which is often a translator's greatest virtue. It serves best as a set of cribs for someone who has some French, but whose French isn't perfect.

Wallace Fowlie's translation of Rimbaud's complete poeticworks, together with a selection of Rimbaud's letters, provides themost complete and reliable English translation of Rimbaud's poetry and a useful companion to the many books on Rimbaud's life. While Fowlie's translations are workmanlike and somewhat unimaginative, they are generally faithful to the original French text. Moreover, because the original French version and the English translation are on facing pages, the reader can easily compare Fowlie's translation with the reader's own understanding and interpretation of the French text. In this respect, the book is particularly useful if you have some French fluency.

All translations are, by their nature, inauthentic since there is never a perfect correspondence between the resonant images and meanings of the original language and the new language into which a text is translated. Translation is, as one critic has said, "like kissing someone through a veil"; the sensations (meanings) of the original are occluded by the translative process. Recognizing this inevitable deficiency, all that a reader can ask is that a translation approximate, as closely as possible, the linguistic meaning of the original. Fowlie has achieved this, more so than many other translators of Rimbaud, who have corrupted the integrity of Rimbaud's original meanings by their own creative and symbolistic interpretive renderings.

Fowlie also has provided solid translations of Rimbaud's important letters, particularly the letters of May, 1871, to George Izambard and Paul Demeny which articulate Rimbaud's precocious and iconoclastic aesthetic view of the role of the poet. If the book has any real shortcoming, it is the truncated and relatively unintersting biographical section and a lack of detailed notes. However, those failings can be excused by the fact that Wylie's book achieves its main objective--bringing a complete text of Rimbaud's poems to the English speaking world. If you are studying Rimbaud and the biographical details of his early life, and you cannot read the original French, Wylie's collection is indispensable

I ... found Fowlie's over-literal translations ugly and lame. But I think this may be deliberate. The unbeautifulness of the translations forces you back to the exquisite French original. It's a joy to have these poems as Rimbaud wrote them, and a bilingual edition is a must for the non-French-reader. If you want a beautiful English translation, I recommend reading Paul Schmidt's in conjunction with this one.

This is very complete, but the english translations are pretty bad, useful if you are reading in french and forget some of the words. If you are going to read Rimbaud in english, get the Louise Varese (new directions) editions instead.

In these very good & reliable translations on the great boy genius whose life & art inspired numerous die hard rebels & wannabes charts & maps in ascending order the perverse,childish,compassionate,brilliant & inimitable mind of this life-changing & unforgettable phenomenon.To a person with the depth that matches these situation & visionary poems one can undeniably admit that this was an extremely mature young man who was truly inspired & who for a moment in the greatest period of his inspiring & enviable life truly transcended the level that he lived in.A dissapointment are the erotic poems that have been unforgivably censored;considering that this book was published after the trial of "Tropic Of Cancer" gets one frustratingly wondering.And the translator could have expanded more in his introduction.The writing is remarkably consistent all throughout,with some poems passing as fine but when one gets to the works of vision & soul spilling narratives of structural dislocation,innovation & greatness have never been more positionally placed for an elevative reading experience which carries on endlessly afterwards.A book which shows definitive proof of one born & destined for greatness.

Wallace Fowlie first published this book in 1966 and his English translation is quite biased even for 1966. His sanitized editorial of the original French poetry is sad. You can pick up a French dictionary and perform a similar translation without knowing any French. He has lost all the imagery and beauty of the original work. It looks like the work of a student in a first-year French class.

Fowlies' biographical sketch of Rimbaud in the Introduction is incomplete. He skims over Rimbaud's homosexuality and his relationship with Verlaine as "troubled, and at times tragic...". Hardly a thorough and accurate reflection of Rimbaud during his most prolific period. Maybe Fowlie's overly cautious attempt to not offend his readers led him to filter out the imagery in his attempted English translation.

For all who love Rimbaud's work this is the book for them. The included letters give the reader a glimpse into the boy genius that was Rimbaud. He certainly was a difficult person but there is no denying his brilliance as a poet.

Fowlie did an excellent job translating the works of Rimbaud. And as for those few words that he could not translate, some things just can't be translated. Some things are, in a sense, better left alone. But not Rimbaud. Regretfully, I can not speak French, so I am greatful for this translation. I feel like Rimbaud at times, a young man trying to cope with life as it comes to everyone. In my life, there is alcohol, and women, and food. And also the occasional person whom you find unusually attractive. And, like Rimbaud, I began writing poetry early. It wasn't too long ago, maybe 4 years, when i was 14. I feel a lot of confusion and contentment and love. I see all those things in the works of Rimbaud. And I am glad there was such a well translated version for me to have read.

Voyou, Voyant, Voleur - I am all of these things. Listen, I'm not saying homeboy was obsessively trying to be like me, that's for the historians to work out. I do recall telling him one time: "School? Get real, kid. Drop out, go to Paris, write some poems. Just be yourself, Rimbaud, what's the worst that can happen?"

Fowlie's translations of Rimbaud are the best to be found. I've read them all. The dual French/English texts is nice & a convenient way to learn some French. Rimbaud uses a lot of obscure words.