Illuminations

Description

First published in 1886, Arthur Rimbaud's 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, the work of a poet who had abandoned poetry before the age of twenty-one, changed the language of poetry. Hallucinatory and feverishly hermetic, it is an acknowledged masterpiece of world literature, still unrivaled for its haunting blend of sensuous detail and otherworldly astonishment. In Ashbery's translation of this notoriously elusive text, the acclaimed poet and translator lends his inimitable voice to a venerated classic.W. H. Auden recognized the strong affinities between Ashbery's poetry and Rimbaud's 𝘐𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 in his 1956 introduction to Ashbery's first book, 𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘴, noting that "the imaginative life of the human individual stubbornly continues to live by the old magical notions." And it is here, in the "crystalline jumble" and "disordered collection of magic lantern slides" of Illuminations, as Ashbery writes in the Preface, that we can rediscover this essential lineage. "Absolute modernity" was for Rimbaud "acknowledging the simultaneity of all of life, the condition that nourishes poetry at every second. [...] If we are absolutely modern, and we are, it's because Rimbaud commanded us to be." Ashbery's idiomatic and lyrical translations of these forty-four texts convey the originality of Rimbaud's vision to English-speaking readers of a new century. INDEX OF POEMS After the Flood (Après le déluge), 19 Anguish (Angoisse), 113 Antique {Antique), 41 Barbarian {Barbare), 119 Being Beauteous {Being Beauteous), 43 Bottom {Bottom), 149 Bridges, The {Les ponts), 73 Childhood {Enfance), 23 Cities (I) {Villes [I]), 87 Cities (II) {Villes [II]), 79 City {Ville), 75 Clearance {Solde), 123 Common Nocturne {Nocturne vulgaire), 105 Dawn {Aube), 99 Democracy {Démocratie), 161 Departure {Départ), 51 Devotions (Dévotion), 157 Drifters (Vagabonds), 83 Fairy (Fairy), 127 Flowers (Fleurs), 103 [Fragments of Folio 12] ([Fragments du feuillet 12]), 65 Genie (Génie), 164 H (H), 151 Historic Evening (Soir historique), 145 Lives (Vies), 45 Metropolitan (Métropolitain), 11 Morning of Drunkenness (Matinée dïvresse), 57 Motion (Mouvement), 153 Mystical (Mystique), 97 Phrases (Phrases), 61 Promontory (Promontoire), 137 Royalty (Royauté), 53 Ruts (Ornières), 77 Scenes (Scènes), 141 Seascape (Marine), Sideshow (Parade), 37 Tale (Conte), 33 To a Reason {A une raison), 55 Vigils {Veillées), 93 War {Guerre), 129 Winter Festival {Fête d’hiver), 111 Workers {Ouvriers), 69 Youth {Jeunesse), 131