Before Wisdom: The Early Poems of Paul Verlaine

by Paul Verlaine, Keith Waldrop (Translator), K.A. Hays (Translator)

A selection from the legendary French poet Paul Verlaine's first four books translated with irreverence and musicality by Keith Waldrop and K.A. Hays. Before he became an icon of fin de siècle French poetry and a major influence on the Symbolist and Decadent movements, before he met Arthur Rimbaud and published his best-known collection, Sagesse (Wisdom, 1880), Paul Verlaine wrote four books of Saturnine Poems (1866), Wild Parties (1869), The Good Song (1870), and Wordless Romances (1874). This volume presents selections from those books, presenting Verlaine's lesser-known early work, in translations that Cole Swensen has dubbed "a real tour de force" and Michael Palmer calls "remarkable versions." "Waldrop's subtle sonic modulations and ease of diction bring Verlaine--in all of his beauty and absurdity--to life in English. Many exquisite, non-dramatic passages haunt me ('Mild ringing of rain / On pavement, on tile.') and the sudden deflations crack me up ('Does my name still make your heartbeat go? / Is my soul permanent in your dreams? -- No.'). The contrast between Waldrop and Verlaine's personalities only makes the poems more vivid."--Ben Lerner "Waldrop and Hays have opened the shutters, pulled back the embroidered curtains, yanked the sheets off the furniture, and lifted the curse from the "curséd poet." This is sunlit syncopated American rhythm for the famous French sonorities, as though Verlaine's contemporary, Gustave Fauré, was being played by Duke Ellington."--Eliot Weinberger "How to approach the work of a poet whose first known poem is titled 'Death,' and his last, 'Dead'? Waldrop and Hays pull it off with aplomb … splendid, often daring choices that maintain Verlaine's famous soundscapes through a brilliant balance of the play of atmosphere and emotion so distinctive in his poems 7/2/2023 … The introduction is a masterpiece in itself, distinguished by the well-known Waldropian wit and framing the whole both temperamentally and historically. All together, a real tour de force."--Cole Swensen "Verlaine's subtly innovative prosodic skill and his singularly French lyric sensibility present significant, even daunting, challenges to would-be translators. Here melos--the music--is at once the ultimate and the most fugitive poetic goal. These remarkable versions offer a much-welcome window into the range of his his erotic fixations, his chimeras, his alternating exaltation and despair."--Michael Palmer Poetry. LGBTQIA+ Studies.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 2023

About the author

Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.

Despite Rimbaud admiring his poetry, these poets had a stormy affair which led to Verlaine's incarceration after shooting Rimbaud. This incident indirectly preceded his re-conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Verlaine's last years were particularly marked by alcoholism, drug addiction and poverty.

His poems have inspired many composers, such as Chopin, Fauré and Poldowski.

Art Poétique describes his decadent style and alludes to the relevance of nuances and veils in poetry.

Reviews

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought at a poetry bookstore in Cambridge. Read a significant chunk of it while smoking a decent cigar in Harvard Square for peak decadence

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before Wisdom: The Early Poems, Paul Verlaine / Keith Waldrop + K. A. Hays, World Poetry Books. Collecting selections of poetry by Verlaine from four of his books published before he was 30 years old, translated by the late Keith Waldrop and his acolyte, K. A. Hays, the poems are formal, metered, and rhymed, expressing a technical mastery of sonority and rhythm, deftly conveyed in contemporary English. The poems follow an arc of loneliness engendered by unrequited love, a romance with melancholy; meeting and courting the 16-year-old woman, Mathilde, who would become his wife, the joy found in their meetings, the woe in their parting, the wonderous love taken in their union; and the ultimate bitterness in their love’s dissolution, Verlaine complaining of betrayal on her part while not admitting to how his drunken, violent behavior toward her may have supplied reason enough for snuffing the love she once felt for him.

“Sentimental Promenade,” which occurs towards the beginning of this anthology could as easily bookend its closure:

The setting sun hurled its final ray
While wind cradled the pale winter-lilies;
Among reeds the great water-lilies shone
Sadly across calm water. Me, I made my way
Alone, taking my wound for a walk
Along the pool, among willows where
Vague mist suggested a stark
Milky-white phantom in despair,
Weeping like a river duck’s prayer,
Answered by a beating of wings amid
The willows among which I made my way
Alone, walking my wound; and the winding-
Sheet of shadows drowned the final ray
Of the setting sun in these pale waves
And the water-lilies, among the reeds,
Great water-lilies on calm water.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Nathalie Friederich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tend to enjoy Verlaine’s poetry very much, however this specific translation fell short for me.