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A review by piccoline
Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud
5.0
Purchased on Bastille Day at the Henry Miller Library, where nothing ever happens.
Perhaps I've now passed the point where I should say that I have a hard time with poetry. Rather, I used to have a hard time finding the poetry that I find interesting and that moves me. I'm getting a list of names, now, though. Pessoa. Rimbaud. Some Bolaño. Some Sebald. Bachmann, Bernhard. Almost all in translation. There's perhaps something to that. I enjoyed some Parra too.
As to this collection, I'm sure it's got a mountain of criticism and secondary literature about it. Rimbaud's certainly one of those names. I loved its immediacy, the sharp and jarring juxtapositions of colors and image. Standouts for me were "Democracy", "Bottom", "H", "Anguish", "Barbarian", and "Historic Evening". I'm just as confident that next time I read it others will leap out from the crowd.
I've not compared translations, but this edition, translated by John Ashberry, flowed beautifully and is filled with surprise and freshness.
Perhaps I've now passed the point where I should say that I have a hard time with poetry. Rather, I used to have a hard time finding the poetry that I find interesting and that moves me. I'm getting a list of names, now, though. Pessoa. Rimbaud. Some Bolaño. Some Sebald. Bachmann, Bernhard. Almost all in translation. There's perhaps something to that. I enjoyed some Parra too.
As to this collection, I'm sure it's got a mountain of criticism and secondary literature about it. Rimbaud's certainly one of those names. I loved its immediacy, the sharp and jarring juxtapositions of colors and image. Standouts for me were "Democracy", "Bottom", "H", "Anguish", "Barbarian", and "Historic Evening". I'm just as confident that next time I read it others will leap out from the crowd.
I've not compared translations, but this edition, translated by John Ashberry, flowed beautifully and is filled with surprise and freshness.