Best Translation of Arthur Rimbaud

[The Ol' Man]

As augured by the title, I am enquiring as to which translation of Arthur Rimbaud is the best, allowing for the small margin of error of course, and some loss of the spirit emanating from the original as attends all translations. I would like one that preserves the rhyme where present in the French originals. If seasoned readers could make a few suggestions I would be grateful.

Thanks,

OM.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm also curious to know this. And while we're on the subject of translations of French poets, I'd also be curious to know the preferred/best translation of Baudelaire, too.

[Pierre Menard]

Louise Varèse's translations of Rimbaud are the ones I read. I've heard nothing buy good things about them, both in style and accuracy. I was very impressed whilst reading.

[stlukesguild]

I love Louise Varèse's translations as well... although she doesn't offer translations of a majority of Rimbaud's earlier, more formal (rhymed) poems. I also have Wallace Fowlie's translations that formed the first complete volume of Rimbaud in English, but I find these too staid and literal most times. Wyatt Mason's more recent efforts are far better. I also see that John Ashbery has made a translation of Illuminations (my favorite volume by Rimbaud) and I will certainly look into this.

[stlukesguild]

My favorite translations of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal are those made by Richard Howard and those edited by Marthiel and Jackson Mathews for New Directions books. Howard offers a marvelous poetic voice that captures the sensuality, the sultriness, the eroticism, and the decadence of Baudelaire. If there is a weakness to his translations, it lies in his avoidance of rhyme... which is so central to the original poems. I still find this to be the finest translation available... of a single voice.

Marthiel and Jackson Mathews edited a volume that is equally fine in which they chose the "best" translation available for every poem (this edition pre-dates Howard's translation). The translators include well-known Modernist poets as well as relatively unknown translators and poets from the 19th and 20th century. The advantage of this volume is that it allows the reader to uncover various aspects of the original through the different voices of the translators. The disadvantage is the lack of a unified voice ala Howard's translation.

Beyond Les Fleurs du Mal Baudelaire composed a number of so-called "prose poems". Again I love Louise Varèse's translations (Paris Spleen) above all... but I would also note that Michael Hamburger, a marvelous translator, has also tackled these.

[dfloyd]

but his translation was used in the 1986 publication of Rimbaud's Season of Hell by the Limited Editions Club. The LEC is a high end publisher and this one sells for about $1200. The Club tries to use the best translations abailable.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and assume the OP isn't looking to pay $1200 for a translation.

[dfloyd]

but sometimes there are other sources for a translation rather than academia. There may be other works translated by Mister Schmidt, but not on the expensive side. Having been selected by a prestigous publisher just lends some credence to his name.

[JuniperWoolf]

With Rimbaud, I think you've got to take it poem by poem. I've seen many translators do several poems and some of my favorite translations of select poems are from one translator and some are from another, but I've only seen a few complete translations done by one individual. Really French isn't that difficult to read either, I've gone over a few of my favorite poems to clarify them with just a dictionary and I don't need them to be translated anymore. The ones I have hanging on my wall are just in French. But then, I live in Canada so I've been reading french on every product I've ever purchased.

[papillondemai]

What do you mean by best? The most beautiful translation or the one that most accurately translates the original text? I think one of Rimbaud's most beautiful poems is Eternity. Part of the translation by J. Norman Cameron found in Baudelaire Rimbaud Verlaine Selected Verse and Prose Poems, Citadel Press, 1947, 1968 is as follows:
We have found it again
What? Time with out end
Tis the ocean gone
for a walk with the sun
soul you sentinel
murmur and confess
day is fiery hell
night is nothingness

Wallace Fowlie's version:

It has been found again
what has?- Eternity
It is the sea gone off
with the sun

sentinel soul
let us whisper the vow
of the night so void
and the day on fire

I think the Cameron translation is more beautiful, but Fowlie's translation is way more faithful to the original French text. You are going to lose some beauty when you translate French into English. That is why I think Cameron finessed the language. I think the Louise Varese or the Wallace Fowlie translations best reproduce the beauty of the original while still being faithful to the original French text. Best thing to do is learn French and read Rimbaud's original.

[Nick Capozzoli]

With Rimbaud, I think you've got to take it poem by poem. I've seen many translators do several poems and some of my favorite translations of select poems are from one translator and some are from another, but I've only seen a few complete translations done by one individual. Really French isn't that difficult to read either, I've gone over a few of my favorite poems to clarify them with just a dictionary and I don't need them to be translated anymore. The ones I have hanging on my wall are just in French. But then, I live in Canada so I've been reading french on every product I've ever purchased.

I agree. Some of his poems have been translated masterfully into English by individual translator/poets. No one has translated the entire Rimbaud opus "masterfully" into English, IMHO.

[lichtrausch]

Come on people, just learn French. It's one of the easiest languages in the world for native speakers of English.

[stlukesguild]

Come on people, just learn French. It's one of the easiest languages in the world for native speakers of English.

And then learn Spanish so you can read Machado, Garcia-Lorca, Paz, Neruda, Borges, Hernandez, Alberti, etc...

Then German so you can read Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Heine, Rilke, Hesse, Celan, etc...

Then Italian... for Dante, Petrarch, Leopardi, Pavese, Ungaretti, Montale, etc...

Then Russian... and you'll be able to read Pushkin, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Mandelshtam, etc...

Then Polish so you can read Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Tadeusz Borowski, and Zbigniew Herbert

etc...

[Darcy88]

What St Lukes said. I try to learn languages for purposes of future travel. If I did it for literary reasons I would have to learn half a dozen languages, as at least half a dozen languages have literatures I'd all equally like to read in the original.

My book of Rimbaud is translated by Paul Schmidt. It has all of his works and even his letters. When I bought it the book was in perfect condition, even shiny, and I was skeptical that I would deem it worthy of its reputation. Now it is tattered, full of indecipherable notes and coffee stains, and I adore it, like a wife of many years whose beauty has faded but who you nevertheless love even more than when you first met, the lines in her face marking the countless times you laughed and smiled along with her.

[lichtrausch]

And then learn Spanish so you can read Machado, Garcia-Lorca, Paz, Neruda, Borges, Hernandez, Alberti, etc...

Then German so you can read Goethe, Schiller, Holderlin, Heine, Rilke, Hesse, Celan, etc...

Then Italian... for Dante, Petrarch, Leopardi, Pavese, Ungaretti, Montale, etc...

Then Russian... and you'll be able to read Pushkin, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Mandelshtam, etc...

Then Polish so you can read Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Tadeusz Borowski, and Zbigniew Herbert

etc...
The other Romance and Germanic languages are somewhat more difficult. I singled out French because as a speaker of English you have practically from day one a French vocabulary of many thousands of words. But if you're ambitious, by all means have a go at others.




What St Lukes said. I try to learn languages for purposes of future travel. If I did it for literary reasons I would have to learn half a dozen languages, as at least half a dozen languages have literatures I'd all equally like to read in the original.

That's a false dichotomy. You don't have to choose between learning all of those six languages or none of them at all.

[papillondemai]

"With Rimbaud, I think you've got to take it poem by poem." This is probably true for the work of many poets who are translated from other languages. And if you have a lot of money, it is no problem you can go out and buy many volumes of poetry so you can have all of your favorite translations. But if you want to buy just one volume the best is probably the Wallace Fowlie "Rimbaud Complete Works, Selected Letters." It has all the poems in the original French on one page and the English translations on the facing page. This allows you to read it French and if you don't understand something you can just look over on the next page and see the translation. I have these: Fowlie's Complete Works; Varese's Illuminations and Season In Hell and The Drunken Boat; Rimbaud's Complete Works by Wyatt Mason; Arthur Rimbaud Complete Works by Paul Schmidt; French only: Rimbaud Poesies Completes presente par Paul Claudel; and Rimbaud Oeurvres Completes par Antoine Adam. I think the best of the group mentioned above are the Fowlie, Varese and Adam volumes.