Selected PoetryThis generous, varied selection of poems by one of France's best-loved and most reviled poets is presented with facing originals, detailed notes, and a lively introduction to the author's life and work. Steven Monte presents more than eighty poems in translation and in the original French, taken from the earliest poetic publications of the 1820's, through collections published during exile, to works published in the years following Hugo's death in 1883. The introduction provides helpful background information about Hugo's life and work, the selection, and what is involved in translating a poet whose effortless rhymes are central to the poetry's power. Detailed notes at the back of the volume offer information about the poems and their publishing and historical contexts. This is an ideal introduction to a poet whose work, for all its renown, remains for Anglophone readers undiscovered. |
Contents
from Odes et Ballades 1822 1823 1824 1826 1828 | 2 |
from Odes and Ballads | 3 |
from Les Feuilles dautomne 1831 | 20 |
from Autumn Leaves | 21 |
from Les Chants du crépuscule 1835 | 32 |
from The Songs of Daybreak | 33 |
from Les Voix intérieures 1837 | 38 |
from Inner Voices | 39 |
À Celle qui est restée en France | 176 |
To the One Who Stayed Behind in France | 177 |
from Les Chansons des rues et des bois 1865 | 196 |
from Songs of the Streets and the Woods | 197 |
from LAnnée Terrible 1872 | 202 |
from The Horrific Year | 203 |
from LArt dêtre grandpère 1877 | 210 |
from The Art of Being a Grandfather | 211 |
from Les Rayons et les ombres 1840 | 44 |
from Sunbeams and Shadows | 45 |
Nuits de juin | 58 |
from Punishments | 61 |
from Les Contemplations 1856 | 94 |
from Contemplations | 95 |
Aujourdhui 18431855 | 134 |
Today | 135 |
from La Fin de Satan 1886 | 258 |
from The End of Satan | 259 |
Notes | 267 |
59179 | 293 |
| 296 | |
| 300 | |