![]() He had a number of important bibliophiles among his customers, including the marquess of Ayala and the count Chevreau d'Antraigues. This copy was bound by Werner Wirtz in Lausanne. The reissue by Grosclaude does make a distinction between these poems and the prose poems, but presents both as part of Les illuminations. Part of the poems, for instance, was also published under the title Vers nouveaux et chansons and these poems are often considered not to be part of Les illuminations. Was it written before or after his farewell to poetry ( Une saison en enfer)? The precise composition of the collection is also shrouded in mystery. Rimbaud himself never published Les illuminations, which is why many aspects of this collection remain obscure. The flowers in these two prints are very precise and highly detailed. They are the illustrations to 'Bonne pensée du matin' and 'Patience'. This does not hold, however, for two illustrations where he seems to have deviated from his usual style. ![]() ![]() He wanted to bring the colours forward as much as possible and avoided complementary colour contrasts. The illustrations without text are dominated by primary colours that are typical for Léger. Leger has entirely appropriated these poems: leaving out all interpunction, he has written the texts in calligraphy. Parts of four poems are used in illustrations, but there are also three poems ("H', 'Elle aimée' and 'Départ') that have neither been printed nor entered in the index, but occur instead as illustrations in the book. Léger took things a bit further and incorporated text by Rimbaud into his compositions. According to the title, the visual language and the multitude of colours, Les illuminations were meant to be paintings in verse. Rimbaud's poems are colourful, the most famous example being 'Voyelles', in which he has given a colour to each vowel. His prose poems are pastiches of other text forms, such as a confession ('Génie') or a short story ('Conte'), but sonnets and other verse return as prose poems too. He also renewed the form, as is evidenced by Les illuminations, where he developed Baudelaire's poems in prose. To describe those new worlds, he renewed the language, using existing words in a different function and using English loan words. To Baudelaire's dictum 'Poetry does not have Truth as her goal, but Herself', Rimbaud added 'not even Reality'. His poems are revolutionary, both because of their rebellious tone and because of the way they were written and the new worlds they describe. This is a landscape not only of the imagination, but of an imagination that is still affecting us profoundly.In the short period that Rimbaud was a poet (from age fifteen to eighteen), he underwent an incredible development. Rimbaud's epoch-making poems come through in all their bizarre originality, their brusque, unsettling freshness.-John Timpane "Philadelphia Inquirer" Meticulously faithful yet nimbly inventive.We are fortunate that John Ashbery has.brought to it such care and imaginative resourcefulness.-Lydia Davis "New York Times Book Review" ![]() Presented with French text in parallel and a preface by its translator, Ashbery's rendering powerfully evokes the glittering, kaleidoscopic beauty of the original About the Book "This may be the most beautiful book in the world, lighted from within and somehow embodying all forms of literature." -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Timesīook Synopsis The modernist masterpiece that is Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations has been given new life with the publication of John Ashbery's "dazzling" ( The Economist) new translation, widely hailed as one of the literary events of the year.
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