The Random House Book of 20th Century French Poetry: Bilingual Edition

A wonderful collection, with excellent translations

its true, there is an inherent danger in any translation of poetry from its original language. Even the most skillful translators cannot help but producing something that is almost by definition a completely new work, And I agree that Pound seems to have flaked out on his weird translation of "Symphonie de Novembre" which he turned into "Strophes." I have my issues with Pound anyway... But this collection is really about translation above all else. After all, there is only ONE index, and it is an Index of Translators, revealing that the anthology is, rightly or wrongly, more about the translation than the original. And just look through the Index and notice some of the names: Wallace Stevens, Samuell Beckett, William Carlos Williams, Galway Kinnell, Denise Levertov, T.S. Eliot, John Ashbery, John Dos Passos, and many more bright lights. Also, there are far more translators involved in this anthology than Poets being translated, 48 poets versus 84 translators.For me, this is a spectacular anthology, and the range and breadth of the translators/translations is one of the most compelling things about the anthology. Most of the translations were, for me, powerful and beautiful, opening a door to modern French poetry that has not been opened before. The Random House Anthology is an indispensible work of art in its own right, no modern poetry collection should be without it, period. The 2004 Yale Anthology has many of the same poems and translator, minus Pound. ;-)

Words cannot truly do justice to this magnificent collection of 20th Century French Poetry, and many thanks to Paul Auster for his incredible work as an editor. The poetry is timeless, beautiful, provocative, poignant and beyond great. FIVE STARS.

Poems are in English and French, a highly enjoyable read.

The book physically is in good shape, but the pages are very yellowed...darkened. It must have been stored in a non-airconditioned storage for a long time. It is legible, but the darkened pages are distracting. I used to check this book out of library repeatedly. I'm glad to have my own copy, but am disappointed.

Great, comprehensive bilingual anthology of poetry.

a must for any lover of poetry in french

Excellent book.

This has a very good reputation, but I find surprisingly little that I really enjoyed. There is the famous war poem Liberté by Éluard... then a lot of it seems rather austere and modernist.