Is there a point in reading poetry like this if it's been translated from a different language? Isn't that part of the point of the poem, is it's supposed to rhyme? Rimbaud sounds like a good place to start in poetry though. Ug.
Read it in French. What's the problem?
>>8132700
>Isn't that part of the point of the poem, is it's supposed to rhyme?
>>8132711
you're funny.
Translated poetry usually keeps the meter and rhyme, unless it's bilingual and the translations are as literal as possible.
Rimbaud doesn't sound like a good place to start with poetry. He was, broadly speaking, a modernist, and I don't think modernism is a good place to start with anything. Get Norton Anthology of Poetry first, then get into specific poets and movements.
By the way, if lyric poetry has been translated well, it retains enough of its quality to be enjoyable. If I really wanted to read some poetry in a language I don't intend to learn, I'd get a translation, if it's cheap. But you're probably english/american, and should be able to learn french easily.
>>8132764
Thank you.
>>8132764
>should be able to learn french easily.
K. How?
>>8132764
>should be able to learn french easily
>>8132764
fuck, I want that norton anthology book.
>>8132763
French isn't that hard to learn to read, to be honest. Speaking it is hard, but I'm making my way through Du Cote du Chez Swann right now, and have only learnt it for about a year and a half. It's very similar to English in structure anyway, and most of the words are similar.
>>8132700
I've read this and honestly I didn't really get it/enjoy it a lot.
I very recently finished Rimabud's A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat, and I really loved them both. I read them in the New Directions bilingual edition which I think was vital: every so often (not every page) I would read select passages in the french and slowly translate them literally, trying to understand why the translator had translated it the way they did, which made the whole experience really engaging.
Rimbaud is the poet who convinced me that something fundamental is lost in poetry translation. Having been exposed to illuminations in English first -- it was only after reading it in French that the strength of his work became clear.
It's unfortunate that I'll never learn Swedish to read Transtromer as intended. However I find consolation in Pound, Yeats, and Shakes.
>>8135535
>Rimbaud is the poet who convinced me that something fundamental is lost in poetry translation.
Really?
I'm very unread but I found Baudelaire great.
>>8135737
Saint-John Perse is probably the hardest french poet to translate. Worst than Rilke, for sure.
>>8135413
That's the way to do it.
