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Stephane Mallarme Collected Poems Translated And With A Commentary by Henry Weinfield

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This a beautiful edition of the COMPLETE poems of one of the most important French symbolist poets. If only all French poetry books could be printed in handsome, large-format bilingual editions like this! The translation is not even half-bad, with Weinfeld doing his best to maintain the actual flavor of Mallarmé's words. Best of all, the poems are translated in a faithful stylistic way-- prose poems STAY in prose, and the early-surrealist poem "Un Coup de Des" keeps its complex typesetting. The commentary is substantial and the poems are arranged in order of the books they appeared in, which makes it easier to follow the progression. Sometimes it seems that Mallarmé is left out of his rightful place in poetry, and this edition should help to alleviate that problem.

This volume of COLLECTED POEMS by Stephane Mallarme
and translated with commentary by Henry Weinfield
is a joy and a treasure. For it contains Mallarme
poems from various of his collections: First Poems,
Satirical Parnassus, The Contemporary Parnassus,
Other Poems, Album Leaves, Street Songs, Several
Sonnets, Homages and Tombs, Other Poems and
Sonnets, Poems in Prose, and A Throw of the Dice.
The best appreciation of Mallarme is cited by
Henry Weinfield in his "Introduction" to this
volume. The comments were by Paul Valery (and
were about Mallarme): "This poet was the least
-primitive- of all poets, yet it came about that
by bringing words together in an unfamiliar, strangely
melodious, and as it were stupefying chant -- by the
musical splendor of his verse as well as by its
amazing richness -- he restored the most powerful
impression to be derived from primitive poetry: that
of the -magical formula-. An exquisite analysis of
his art must have led him toward a doctrine, and
something like a synthesis, of incantation."
This volume contains the texts of the poems in
French on the right-hand side of each page -- and
the translation in English on the left-hand side.
Mallarme is an extremely interesting poet, artist,
and human thinker/creator, for he has a spiritual
crisis in which he came away perceiving: "Yes, I
-know-, we are merely empty forms of matter, but
we are indeed sublime in having invented God and
our soul. So sublime, my friend, that I want to
gaze upon matter, fully conscious that it exists,
and yet launching itself madly into Dream, despite
its knowledge that Dream has no existence, extolling
the Soul and all the divine impresssion of that kind
which have collected within us from the beginning of
time and proclaiming, in the face of the Void, which
is truth, these glorious lies." Yet, even this, is
not precisely what Mallarme finally winds up doing...
for his is a "quest for Beauty and for a transcendent
Ideal and the tragic vision on which that quest is
based."
And all of this is enveloped in the most beautiful
sounds and images...charming and mystifying...for he
is also hermetic in his approach, "Everything that is
sacred and that wishes to remain so, must envelop
itself in mystery."
Here is a portion from "The Afternoon of a Faun" in
English -- then in French:
"...through the motionless and weary swoon/ Of
stifling heat that suffocates the morning,/ Save
from my flute, no waters murmuring/ In harmony flow
out into the groves;" -- "par l'immodible et lasse
pamoison/ Suffoquant de chaleurs le matin frais sil
lutte/ Ne murmure point d'eau que ne verse ma flute/
Au bosquet arrose d'accords;".
"...the ancient technique of verse -- for which I
retain a religious veneration and to which I atribute
the empire of passion and of dreams..."

This is a beautiful edition that is well translated with exceptional commentaries by Henry Weinfield. It was a true pleasure reading this book in light of the author's influence on Maurice Blanchot, which was my primary 'project.' The nice litte surprise here was the commentary by Weinfield in which he displays his ability to place each poem within an historical context and a theoretical/interpretive framework. Finally, the use of font and spacing by the publishing house is nearly perfect, just as Stephane intended.

Mallarme is rightly regarded as one of the father's of modernism and symbolism, and this beautiful collection is a testament to his radical artistry. Mallarme is notoriously difficult to translate, and while Henry Weinfield's translation often fails to account for Mallarme's ingenious wordplay (any translation would), he nevertheless manages to encapsulate the beauty of his language. Moreover, this collection is a painstaking recreation of Mallarme's textual specifications- Un coup de des is a beautiful painting/poem which transformed literature as we no it. There are also insightful commentaries on each poem from Weinfield, whose understanding and interpretative work is invaluable. An excellent collection.

Mallarme is a classic poet. His poetry made great impact on almost every important modern poet. He follow a road of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, the hard road. Paul Valery's work, for example, can not be even imagined without Mallarme's poems. This book contains all Mallarme's poetry. It is an essential collection for every poetry fan whose taste is not satisfied with mere cliched rhymes. Mallarme is also a paradigmatical figure of modern literature. He is the author of that famous statement: "The world exists in order to become a book."

Weinfeld makes all the mistakes you might expect in a translation of a poet only posthumously appreciated. That is, Weinfeld is the kind of guy who would have hated Mallarme in the late 19th Century, and likes him now because of what is old about his poetics, not what was/is innovative.

It seems to me that people who see "ahead of their time" poets (i.e., Rimbaud, Lautremont, Poe, to some extent Whitman, etc) as valuable exemplars of daring experimentalism generally produce fresher translations because they are more interested in keeping language fresh. Those who see the aforementioned poets as valuable reminders of the importance of constrained prosody, "high" diction, a centered author, or other notions that have since been obliterated, tend to produce translations that make radical poets sound like stuffy Englishmen in ascots drinking sherry.

No one can mess up "A Throw of the Dice...", but in general I'd reccomend the Daisy Aldan translation. i haven't read it all the way through, but in looking over some of the poems, it seems she makes fewer gross errors. For one, she doesn't bother to try to translate French rhyme to English rhyme, a task that usually requires a complete rearrangement of the poem by a much less talented poet than the original author.