From Booklist
The fine last book of the prolific Eluard, here in a bilingual edition, is a rapturous and expansive series of long poems that reflects on the importance of love in sustaining revolutionary efforts to transform society. Love, to Eluard, was a kind of revolution of the spirit, binding one soul to another through, rather than despite, the body. This is love poetry of the greatest passion and the greatest tenderness: "Step by step I recover strength / Find new reasons for loving / And the world from under its shell / Gives me its sap that runs / Into the long stream of our kisses." Gilbert Bowen's translations well capture the breathless yet utterly certain quality of Eluard's French. Jill Lewis' introduction begins in rather heavy-handed theory but finally provides sufficient formal and biographical information for even new readers to appreciate this formidable poet. Patricia Monaghan
Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)
Original Language: French
Original Language: French
