Baudelaire, Charles

Les Fleurs Du Mal
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • creep close until you lie upon my heart
  • Baudelaire bowdlerized?
  • The Crystal Flowers
  • Beyond
  • exemplary translation; mediocre volume
Les Fleurs Du Mal
Charles Baudelaire
Manufacturer: David R. Godine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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  1. Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library Classics)
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ASIN: 0879234628

Book Description

WINNER OF THE American Book Award in Translation for 1983, Richard Howard's version of this landmark work of modernist verse, published here in tandem with the French original. Embellished by a frontispiece portrait and nine floral monotypes by Michael Mazur.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars creep close until you lie upon my heart.......2006-11-25

Howard's translation of Baudelaire's masterpiece is not to be missed. This is the poetic decadence that began the belle epoque and influenced so much of what was to come in literature and the arts. Anyone seen reading this in public could be mobbed by attractive and intelligent members of the opposite and/or same sex: it has a libido boost that exceeds the music of Barry White. Go ahead, read "Lethe" to your sexy significant other while drinking absinthe and champagne; they'll be yours forever.

2 out of 5 stars Baudelaire bowdlerized?.......2006-04-18

In some translations, Baudelaire creeps up and stabs you. In this one he just sits and broods, smoking a hookah.

Richard Howard reduces Baudelaire to a pleasant middle-voice from which he speaks with only occasional eloquence. The translator here is a poet who is sensitive to the meaning of each poem, but he hasn't focused his energy enough on crafting his translations to contribute much that is better than the translations already done.

His introduction reveals that he is concerned more with "articulating a sustained structure" (in which he succeeds) than with giving any poem its "individual varnish" (in which he fails). The result, of course, is that few of these poems are brilliantly presented IN THEMSELVES, and we can appreciate this translation only if we read all the poems in sequence, thinking about their relationships.

Translation of Baudelaire demands a focus on every word, every line, every cadence. This translation has an agenda; it tries to capture only a fraction of the poet.

Most of these translations do not rhyme; and yet they are not literal translations either. The popularity of this book is that Howard makes everything sound plain and sensible. It is only when you look at the French that you realize how uncanny the original poems are. This book does not convey Baudelaire's lyric intensity, mainly because it abandons the music of the original. Howard is so bent on making everything plain English that he utterly misses the thundering rhythms of a poem like "Le Vampire". He translates "Toi qui, comme un coup de couteau / Dans mon coeur plaintif es entree" as "Sudden as a knife you thrust / Into my sorry heart." Bleh! What a lazy translation! Of course you CAN translate it that way, but it destroys the music of the poem, which severely weakens the reading of Baudelaire.

N.B. It's awkward to review a whole book of translations, since certain attempts will obviously be more successful than others. Howard is quite sensitive to the poetry of the original (he never misinterprets) and certain lines in these translations are indeed wonderful moments of poetic understanding: such poems include "Sorrows of the Moon", "I spent the night..." and "L'Heautontimoroumenos" in which he writes "I am the vampire at my own veins." Such recasting of Baudelaire's phrases are the most significant contributions of this book. Unfortunately, they're the exceptions, and other translators have written stunning translations, full of Baudelaire's dark music, which are far more memorable and accomplished than the typical translation here.

5 out of 5 stars The Crystal Flowers.......2005-12-11

Published in a most beautiful format. The pure essence of the Flowers.

It reads as smooth as silk. A tribute to the linguistic skill of Richard Howard, whose pre-eminence is undisputed.

"Satan Trismegistus subtly rocks
our ravished spirits on his wicked bed
until the precious metal of our will
is leached out by this cunning alchemist:..."

By a process of alchemical distillation the pure essence of the Flowers matures and comes to bloom in the upper regions. Held by a hand surpassing that of an Eastern Flower-Master the pure spirit is poured out to an indifferent world, by means of a golden trumpet set with a jewelled-encrusted rose. The elixir cascades and crystallizes in transparent space and hangs suspended like the many pendants of a crystal chandelier. Both by day and by night they glisten with scintillating colour and multifarious light. Those Crystal Flowers of Richard Howard.

5 out of 5 stars Beyond.......2005-09-24

This book, these words, this particular translation takes me there. One of the only books on this planet which can move me to tears time and time again; a julien in my life.

4 out of 5 stars exemplary translation; mediocre volume.......2003-12-13

Let me declare immediately that I agree with the other reader-reviews here: Richard Howard's translations of these poems are rich, sensual, potent, lurid renderings. His verse forgoes the shoehorn of obeying the foreign rhymes (a decision shared by Dante's best translators) and pursues instead a laden, incantatory English that is utterly full and alive--really alive and vital, almost writhing in his versions of Baudelaire's most charnel poems (like "Carrion," "Against Her Levity," and the grim crescendo of "To the Reader"), and with a nearly pungent eros in the coutless mistress poems. One need only read the French originals (included in the book's second half) to appreciate the alchemy of Howard's admixture of fidelity and music. They don't sound self-conscious like most translations, and I find myself reading them aloud.

But as for the whole volume--well, despite Howard's introductory apologia and his Keats quip, we could use explanatory notes, even if they're just stashed inobtrusively in the back, as with the Oxford Press edition. Howard calls such notes an "overbearing gloss," but we could always ignore them, if we wanted, so I don't see what the danger is. I find context valuable--after all, Baudelaire wrote within one. Howard's Baudelaire both stirs and harrows me, but it also awakens an earnest and respectful curiosity, the kind that must bring any translator to their authors in the first place, and ironically my proper curiosity makes this unannotated book incomplete.

I appreciate Howard's stout chronolgy of Baudelaire's life and work, but we could use an account of Baudelaire's aims, of symbolist poetry, of his sources and his impact. Howard's introduction offers four pages of detailed translator's defense and thanks to his supporters; surely Baudelaire and his work deserve at least as much attention! Baudelaire wrote "The Living Torch," for instance, in response to Poe's "To Helen": why not reprint Poe's little poem for us, with clarifying remarks about the history between the two writers? Baudelaire dedicates other poems to Hugo--but how come, and how are they fitting responses to Hugo? Such background would allow this volume to be a definitive Baudelaire experience, not just a definitive English rendering. Every other edition I've seen offers such helps, though I'm sure many others don't. And as I said, a book can include notes and you can choose to ignore them.

Anyway, Howard still gives us a bravura, rousing, chilling English Baudelaire. That is, obviously, the most essential thing about a book of foreign poetry, and it is what I celebrate and recommend about Howard's volume.
Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • poets of evil
Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine: Selected Verse and Prose Poems
Charles-Pierre Baudelaire
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0806501960

Book Description

Here, for the first time, the work of three of Frances greatest poets has been published in a single volume: the sensual and passionate glow of Charles Baudelaire, the desperate intensity and challenge of Arthur Rimbaud, and the absinthe-tinted symbolist songs of Paul Verlaine.

To bring the essence of these three giants of modern poetry to the American public, Joseph M. Bernstein, a noted interpreter and translator of French literature, has selected the most representative of their writings and presented them along with a biographical and critical introduction.

"Not to know these three poets", he points out, "is to deprive oneself of a pleasure as rare as it is indispensable to any real understanding of the aims and direction of modern literature.

The volume includes Arthur Symons' unabridged translation of Flowers of Evil and the Prose Poems of Baudelaire; Louise Varese's translation of Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and Prose Poems from "Illuminations"; J. Norman Cameron's translation of the verse from the Illuminations; and a representative selection from Verlaine's verse translated by Gertrude Hall and Arthur Symons.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars poets of evil.......1999-02-19

I think I have a better instinctual understand of these "decadents" who were the clear marking of the break between the old aesthetic rationality and the surrealism, symbolism, etc. that followed--those who actually blend the periods, smudge and blur the two worldviews, like Poe and Blake and, here, Baudelaire do. I like Baudelaire's phantasmagoria, his exoticism put in service of delivering a concrete insight. And I especially like it when the poetic histrionics of "Flowers of Evil" give way to the fascinating prose poems--like "The Confiteor of the Artist" or the marvellous war-against-poetry volley "The Courteous Marksman." Other fine ones (reminding me also of Lovecraft)--"The Evil Glazier," "At One O'Clock in the Morning," "Solitude." There's misanthropy, insight and occult broodishness here of the most useful sort.

Rimbaud and Verlaine didn't grip me as strongly--I appreciate that they stretched artistic boundaries, but what they have done intrinsically I don't find as rich. Rimbaud's religious ravings and visions I find intelligent but obscurant (like Wallace Stevens)--he's doing some constructive deconstruction, but it's hardly readable (though I do like the more coherent symbolism of the famed "Drunken Boat"). And Verlaine, while he has the occasional dead-on whimsical insight, is a bit too florid in verbiage, classical in form, and even conventional for me. With these latter two poets, I think my concern with translated poetry also must come in at full force--this sort of wordplay and deliberate suggestiveness must be highly dependent on the nuance of the original words, and must therefore lose something considerable in English.--J.Ruch
The Flowers of Evil (Oxford World's Classics)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • Mistaken identity
  • Absolutely essential reading
  • The Flowers of Evil
  • Poems that will grab you!
  • the best poete maudit!
The Flowers of Evil (Oxford World's Classics)
Charles Baudelaire
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192835459

Book Description

This bold new translation with facing French text restores once banned poems to their original places and reveals the full richness and variety of the collection.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Mistaken identity.......2007-01-01

None of the reader reviews below (prior to August 2006, the month of this translation's publication), have anything to do with this translation by Keith Waldrop. So read it for yourself, or wait for reviews by those that have. All translations of foreign language poetry into English have differences--especially as here where one is done in versets--and a review of one translation cannot suffice for another.

5 out of 5 stars Absolutely essential reading.......2005-11-15

We adore Baudelaire, and this edition is superb. It's essential reading for lovers of France, of the 19th century, of decadence, and of evocative poetry. Fabulous!

3 out of 5 stars The Flowers of Evil.......2005-11-07

A disappointing rendition. The French text and translation appear side by side, and yet, this is no literal transcription. The hypnotic, the alluring, the enchanting voice of Baudelaire has been cut, trimmed, and muddled, to suit the scansion and/or rhyme of the traslator. Which reads at times like a jingle. At other times the tongue trips and stumbles over the phraseology - like a boat on dry rocks. And the mind struggles as it strives to make sense of the diction - so un-Baudelaire. These are not Flowers to swoon for. These are not Flowers to die for.

5 out of 5 stars Poems that will grab you!.......2005-10-04

As you read these stark and beautiful poems you may see into the tortured psyche of the poet who wrote them. Baudelaire had a short and sad life. He contracted syphilis at a young age, and this disease plagued him for all his life until he died at the age of 46. His poetry was written in the mid nineteenth century, and when this book came out in 1857 it shocked the French-speaking world. In fact the book was banned for a time, and when it did come out again six or seven poems were removed from it. The edition that I had had all his poetry including the banned ones, and I recommend that if you're interested in great poetry that you get the complete edition. In his poetry Baudelaire examined evil under a magnifying glass and exposed it for the world to see. His language and imagery are absolutely beyond belief. Baudelaire was a very talented wordsmith and his poetry is lyrical an descriptive. In the cold light of our modern world, Baudelaire's stepping into the world of erotica seems tame compared to what we're used to, but it's easy to see why it shocked everyone at the time. This is beautiful poetry that will come out and grab your soul.

5 out of 5 stars the best poete maudit!.......2004-12-02

Reading a poem by Baudelaire is like sipping chardonnay on the quayside in Paris. Formidable! I always return to this book, and I buy as many translations of it as I can. This one I think is the best. As a poet, Baudelaire was the master of describing the "dark regions" of the human soul. He was the Edgar Allan Poe of poetry.
Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Great Choice of French Poetry
  • A "success de scandale"...
  • The Most Intriguing of Poets
  • compare original and translation
Flowers of Evil and Other Works/Les Fleurs du Mal et Oeuvres Choisies : A Dual-Language Book (Dover Foreign Language Study Guides)
Charles Baudelaire
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486270920

Book Description

Controversial book of verse, first published in 1857, presented in a handsome dual-language edition, together with superb selection of great French poet’s other works: prose poems from "Spleen of Paris," critical essays on art, music and literature, as well as personal letters. Line-by-line English translation, with original French text on facing page.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Great Choice of French Poetry.......2004-10-09

Charles Baudelaire is a one of the finest French poets. Critics refer to his works as "les poemes obscures. If you like Edgar Alan Poe's style, you'll love Baudelaire. I recommend reading 2 poems in particular " La Beaute", and "L'ennemi".

If you are a bilingual reader, I'd recommend buying "Contes Francais". This is, again, a dual-language book with chosen stories from Voltaire, Balzac, Gide, et Camus...

5 out of 5 stars A "success de scandale"..........2001-07-19

"All the bourgeois fools who incessantly utter the words immoral, immorality, morality in art, and other silly things remind me of Louise Villedieu, a five franc whore who, when accompanying me one day to the Louvre - where she had never been - started blushing and covering her face; and pulling all the time at my sleeve, she asked, before the immortal statues and paintings, how people could put such obscenities on public display" ~ Mon Coeur mis a nu (My heart laid bare)

The ministry of interior declared in 1857 that "Les Fleurs du Mal" constituted "an act of defiance in contempt of the laws which safeguard religion and morality" and both Baudelaire, the publisher and the printer was convicted on grounds of immorality, and all available copies of "Les Fleurs du Mal" was confiscated.

The courts verdict stated that whatever mitigating comments "Les Fleurs du Mal" might contain, nothing could dissipate the harmful effects of the images Mr. Baudelaire presents to the reader, and which, in the incriminated poems, inevitably lead to the arousal of the senses by crude and indecent realism.

"You know that I have only considered literature and the arts as pursuing a goal unrelated to morality, and that the beauty of conception and style alone are enough for me." ~ Baudelaire

The ban on the censored poems was not lifted until May 31, 1949!!

With "Les Fleurs du Mal" Baudelaire came to spearhead the Symbolist movement as a reaction against the prevailing naturalism in literature at the time. Baudelaire sublimated debauchery, spleen and hideousness to an art of studied elegance, but people often forget the wicked sense of cynical, black humour permeating many of his poems:

"I've just seen an adorable woman. She has the most beautiful eyes in the world - which she draws with a matchstick - the most provocative eyes - the brilliance of which is the clue solely to the khol on her eyelid - a voluptuous mouth - drawn with cochineal - and, on top of that, not a hair of her own - in short 'A GREAT ARTIST !` "

In Baudelaire's own words "A translation of poetry... may be an enticing dream, but can only ever be a dream" and therefore this dual-language book of "The Flowers of Evil/Les Fleurs du Mal" definetly is the one to get...

5 out of 5 stars The Most Intriguing of Poets.......2001-02-08

Les Fleurs du Mal is a bittersweet compilation of poems by Charles Baudelaire, the master of forlorn sentiments who lived in Paris around 1850. Unique to his style is a juxtaposition of the realm of nature with that of the modern city (Paris). Baudelaire, like Gaugin, was one of the few artists of his cohort who had traveled out of his usual frame of reference (from Paris to the islands of La Reunion and back to Paris again), instilling in his vision a lust for the exotic and for realms of simple enchantment. While many perceive his works as pessimistic, it seems to me that the elements of humour and sarcasm woven throughout his works reveal an underlying transcendence over any serious lugubrious entrapment. The French-English text here helps to expose what may have been lost or altered in the translation. Ultimately the poems and their English counterparts here maintain the glory of Baudelaire- dark and uncanny rhymes often intertwined with florid beauty and intimations of the untarnished. A timeless works, the Flowers of Evil is sublimely written.

5 out of 5 stars compare original and translation.......2000-11-18

Very interesting item! The best works by Charles Baudelaire in French original and in English translation. Except the great qualities of Baudelaire's poetry the value of this book is also in the possibility to compare original with translation. There are many academic disputes about translating of poetry. This book is a fine example of an effort to offer every reader a chance to judge for himself about quality of each and every translation. "Flowers of evil" are enough for five stars themselves. What to say then about this book which offers double-language edition of the forst modern collection of poetry and also some additional texts?
Paris Spleen (New Directions Paperbook)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Baudelaire's sensitivity and despair revealed
  • The classic translation.
  • poems in prose
  • Baudelaire Vents His Spleen at the Outside World
  • Make sure to get the Varese translation!
Paris Spleen (New Directions Paperbook)
Charles Baudelaire
Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811200078

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Baudelaire's sensitivity and despair revealed.......2007-06-06

I am almost finished reading this. I found the picture on the cover of "Paris Spleen" scintillating, with Baudelaire's debased-looking image peering out of the cover (my husband said it looked "honest"). I always thought of Baudelaire as a decadent and sardonic man of sorts, but after reading some of his writings here, I can say he was very sensitive and profound in many ways, and, like myself and others, he wished to "escape" the daily world and the daily rut of the city he belonged to. At best, his despair is something akin to the world-weariness of Poe.

5 out of 5 stars The classic translation........2006-09-13

An elegant, accurate, and readable translation of this wonderful little book that can revolutionize your way of seeing and thinking. Some newer, and in some ways, better translations have appeared since this one became the "standard," but it's still a good buy and a sure bet for reading pleasure.

4 out of 5 stars poems in prose.......2001-04-18

Yes, Baudelaire, himself told to his friend Troubat:"These are The flowers of evil again, but with more freedom,much more detailes, and much more mockery". Noone before Baudelaire has ever concepted the poem in prose which would express so many special, original and protesting sensations. This urban, very personal poetry is a product of the metropolitan noisy atmosphere, and as it is surrounded with fog of overpopulated, but yet unexplored areas.This poetry expresses more than the actual meaning of the words is telling.Spleen is created of prose and pure poetry, of the reflection of the analytical spirit and intuitive introspection.The apostle of pain and depression,Baudelaire is the one who analyzes his own and other people's sins, expresses himself as a moralist in this book as well.

5 out of 5 stars Baudelaire Vents His Spleen at the Outside World.......1999-04-01

The book that helped me overcome my prejudice against poetry--I carried "Paris Spleen" around with me for a couple of weeks after I first read it, and kept turning back to certain poems as I went about my daily errands. Even though it's nearly 150 years old it seems as timely and contemporary as it must have seemed when it was first published--absolutely top-notch.

5 out of 5 stars Make sure to get the Varese translation!.......1998-12-28

This is a wonderful book -- Baudelaire's prose poems perfectly capture the spirit of 19th century Paris as it rushes into modernism. Don't be seduced by prettier editions of this book -- it is crucial to get the Varese translation! Also, Walter Benjamin's early to mid twentieth century critique of Baudelarie should not be missed.
The Painters of Modern Life (Arts & Letters)
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Modern versus Contemporary critical reflections/debates on the Arts
The Painters of Modern Life (Arts & Letters)
Charles Baudelaire
Manufacturer: Phaidon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Modern versus Contemporary critical reflections/debates on the Arts.......2007-02-21

This book was a historical landmark in the beginnings of modern criticism, and is seen as a pioneering benchmark for artistic reference. Its relevance today is that its poetic language or vernacular manages to engage the reader in a strange relationship with contemporary art criticism, opening up all kinds of possiblities for the artist(s)/curator who wishes to broaden their historical frames of reference. It is then a specialists book that equally throws light onto our times, it is up to the reader of course on how far their imagination can accomodate this. I recommend this book to anyone with an open mind who is curious about how past and present times are constructed, viewed and discussed.
Selected Letters of Charles Baudelaire: The Conquest of Solitude
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Selected Letters of Charles Baudelaire: The Conquest of Solitude
    Charles Baudelaire
    Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    ASIN: 0226039285

    Book Description

    Undeniably one of the modern world's greatest literary figures, Charles Baudelaire (1821-67) left behind a correspondence documenting in intimate detail a life as intense in its extremes as his poetry. This extensive selection of his letters—many translated for the first time into English—depicts a poet divided between despair and elation, thoughts of suicide and intimations of immortality; a man who could write to his mother, "We're obviously destined to love one another, to end our lives as honestly and gently as possible," and say in the next sentence, "I'm convinced that one of us will kill the other"; who courted and then suffered the controversy provoked by his masterpiece, Les Fleurs du mal; who struggled throughout his life with syphilis contracted in his youth, near-intolerable financial restrictions imposed by his stepfather, and conflicting feelings of failure and revolt dating from his school days. Writing to family, friends, and lovers, Baudelaire reveals the incidents and passions that went into his poetry. In letters to editors, idols, and peers—Hugo, Flaubert, Vigny, Wagner, Cladel, among others—he elucidates the methods and concerns of his own art and criticism and comments tellingly on the arts and politics of his day. In all, ranging from childhood to days shortly before his death, these letters comprise a complex and moving portrait of the quintessential poet and his time.
    Complete Poems: Charles Baudelaire
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Best translation of Baudelaire
    • This translation is awful-NO STARS!
    • Evil Rhymes
    • Good effort at translation
    Complete Poems: Charles Baudelaire
    Charles Baudelaire
    Manufacturer: Carcanet Press Ltd.
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

    FrenchFrench | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    FrenchFrench | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Baudelaire, CharlesBaudelaire, Charles | ( B ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
    Similar Items:
    1. Rimbaud Complete (Modern Library Classics)
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    4. On Wine and Hashish (Hesperus Classics)
    5. Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters

    ASIN: 1857547365

    Book Description

    All of modern poetry leader Charles Baudelaire's poetic works—from his early poems in Le Salon de 1845 to his seminal work "Les Fleurs du Mal"—are presented in their original form alongside clear, elegant translations in this comprehensive collection. An illuminating introduction, thorough chronology, and afterthoughts on Baudelaire and his contribution to the poetry realm are also included.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Best translation of Baudelaire.......2005-05-15

    This is by far the best translation of Baudelaire's Complete Poems. Not only is the translation achieved in rhymed, metered verse, but Martin captures the essence of this colossus of French poetry. Please ignore "Rosie" the naysayer below who seems to have a limited background in translation, poetry, and Baudelaire. Better yet - here's a challenge for her: Translate Baudelaire's Complete Poems and offer it to the public. After all, you claim to "know French." When you're published we can review your efforts. Ploughshares called Martin's work a "vivid and formally authoritative translation."

    1 out of 5 stars This translation is awful-NO STARS!.......2004-09-22

    i LOVE baudelaire but this translation is simply awful! Very bad! I feel like i wasted my money on this book! Its better to stick to translation by Louise Varese or at least stay away from this translation. the language made akward and because i know french and the french version on the opposite page-i can see his translated badly in some parts- sometimes at random-he translates word for word which makes the poem's reading too hard to bear! then other times he takes artistic license! This translator should be locked up for crime against poetry for destroying Baudelaire's work. All I can say to the translator is Shame on YOU! Please do not buy this book- i beg you- or you will not be able to enjoy Baudelaire because he is one of the greatest poets.

    5 out of 5 stars Evil Rhymes.......2003-05-04

    What I like best about this admittedly eccentric translation is the way Walter Martin renders the poems in rhyme. Baudelaire's extreme content--his embrace of putrefaction, filth, sadism and ennui as fit stuff for poetry--owes much of its impact to the tight, disciplined meter he chose for his medium. Most Baudelaire translations don't capture this classical edge in English, turning the poems into free verse or prose. While Martin has to bend the exact meaning a little (often a lot) to get the English to fit, on the whole he does an impressive job of making the verse sound exact and controlled but not too sing-songy. There's no ponderous introduction to bug you either, just a short & highly personal 'Afterthoughts' section with some intriguing insights. This isn't the only translation you'll want to read, but it recovers a side of modernity's bad boy that's hard to find anywhere else.

    4 out of 5 stars Good effort at translation.......2002-06-29

    This is the first complete translation of Les Fleurs du Mal that I've seen which captures both Baudelaire's symbolic rhyming and his strict syllable count (10 per line in this edition vs. Baudelaire's usual 12).

    Martin's translation could be improved by following Baudelaire's order of ideas and literal diction more closely, but he captures the spirit of each poem in a way that makes this volume stand out from most of the previous efforts I've seen.

    If you're looking for a Baudelaire translation by a single author, this is a good one to buy.
    Oeuvres complètes, tome 1 (Pleiade Series)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Oeuvres complètes, tome 1 (Pleiade Series)
      Charles Baudelaire
      Manufacturer: Schoenhofs Foreign Books
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

      GeneralGeneral | Reference | Subjects | Books
      FrenchFrench | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
      ReferenceReference | French | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
      ASIN: 2070108295
      Twenty Prose Poems
      Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
      • One of the first modern poets
      • Evocative
      Twenty Prose Poems
      Charles Baudelaire
      Manufacturer: City Lights Books
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

      AnthologiesAnthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      FrenchFrench | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      FrenchFrench | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      Baudelaire, CharlesBaudelaire, Charles | ( B ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
      ( B )( B ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
      AnthologiesAnthologies | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
      GeneralGeneral | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
      Continental EuropeanContinental European | Single Authors | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
      FrenchFrench | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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      ASIN: 087286216X

      Book Description

      From the introduction by Michael Hamburger:

      "Baudelaire's prose poems were written at long intervals during the last twelve or thirteen years of his life. The prose poem was a medium much suited to his habits and character. Being pre-eminently a moralist, he needed a medium that enabled him to illustrate a moral insight as briefly and vividly as possible. Being an artist and sensualist, he needed a medium that was epigrammatic or aphoristic, but allowed him scope for fantasy and for that element of suggestiveness which he considered essential to beauty. His thinking about society and politics, as about everything else, was experimental; like the thinking of most poets it drew on experience and imagination, rather than on facts and general arguments. That is another reason why the prose poem proved a medium so congenial to Baudelaire."

      Customer Reviews:

      4 out of 5 stars One of the first modern poets.......2001-02-01

      Modernity is what defines the work of Baudelaire. No elegant poems of love; no countryside-dreaming; no evocation of the Classics nor references to the past. On the contrary: urban life; the alienation brought aboout by capitalism; the angst of poor urban dwellers; alcohol and drugs. Poetry is no more just the search for beauty through words. Now, it is a vehicle for the expression of the individual. Content is more important than form, and therefore Baudelaire gets rid of the constraints imposed by verse, even free verse, and lets his soul spill out in a not lyrical, but dark manner.

      4 out of 5 stars Evocative.......2000-03-28

      These prose poems were my first experience with Baudelaire. I didn't know what to expect, but they're pretty good. They are often vague, but even then manage to be evocative. I'll admit I also bought the book to help my French along (as it is bilingual), but it's Baudelaire and it's good and sometimes thought-provoking reading. Enivrez-vous! De vin, de poesie, de vertu, a votre guise. Enjoy.

      Authors:

      1. Baum, L. Frank
      2. Baxter, Stephen
      3. Beagle, Peter S.
      4. Beai, Steve
      5. Beal, Richard B.
      6. Bear, Greg
      7. Beard, Richard
      8. Beaumont, Charles
      9. Bechard, Gorman
      10. Beckett, Samuel

      Authors

      Authors