Category: French

by Charles Baudelaire Two brand new translations of works by Charles Baudelaire. His seminal, controversial poetry collection, The Flowers of Evil, now acknowledged as one of the most important and influential poetry books ever – and Fanfarlo, Baudelaire’s only sustained work of prose fiction, an ironic self-portrait of a young man, a novella which shines […]

The Flowers of Evil and Fanfarlo

parce qu’on a toujours des herbes dans le sang je plaide pour la verdure je plaide pour la quiétude dans les forges du moment et pour les soleils marbrés qui cognent partout sur les dalles du temps qui reviennent jouer dedans avec tous les vents à la vie voulue à l’été éternel et je vénère […]

À tous les sables du ciel

Here’s a curious likeness that was probably observed soon after Mallarmé’s celebrated sonnet “Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd’hui . . .” was published, and repeatedly since then—as, latterly, by me. The poet knew his Shakespeare, whose pirate Lieutenant opens the fourth act of Henry VI part 2 with the structurally similar line […]

The Duke and the Swan