Cassandra

by Pierre de Ronsard, Clive Lawrence (Translator, Introduction)

The sonnet sequence Les Amours de Cassandre, first published in 1552, established Pierre de Ronsard as the outstanding French poet of his time. He was mentioned approvingly by Montaigne, admired throughout Europe, and fêted by the French Crown and foreign monarchs such as Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Based to some degree on a real relationship with an identifiable woman, Cassandra Salviati, the sequence combines the passionate narrative of the poet's love for an unattainable beauty with explorations of classical myth, the work of literary forebears such as Homer, Ovid and Petrarch, and questions about the very nature of love, literary creation, human existence and the forces that drive the universe. It is also deeply grounded in the natural landscapes of Ronsard's native Vendôme.

Clive Lawrence's translation, the first complete translation of the sequence into English, captures the range and freshness of the writer known in his lifetime as Poet of Princes, Prince of Poets'.

Genres: Poetry, France

313 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 29, 2015

About the author

Lyrical love poems, considered best works of French poet Pierre de Ronsard, include Sonnets pour Hélène (1578).

Pierre de Ronsard est un des poètes français les plus importants du XVIe siècle.

« Prince des poètes et poète des princes », Pierre de Ronsard, adepte de l’épicurisme, est une figure majeure de la littérature poétique de la Renaissance. Membre de la Pléiade, auteur d’une œuvre vaste qui, en plus de trente ans, a touché aussi bien la poésie engagée et « officielle » dans le contexte des guerres de religions avec les Hymnes et les Discours (1555-1564), que l’épopée avec La Franciade (1572) ou la poésie lyrique avec les recueils des Les Odes (1550-1552) et des Amours (Les Amours de Cassandre, 1552 ; Les Amours de Marie, 1555 ; Sonnets pour Hélène, 1578).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_...

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Renaissance sonnet series on unrequited love. Classical notes, eg. he equates his Cassandra with that of Troy.

[LemontreeLime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this from goodreads as a first reads winner in exchange for the chance to write a review.

Translation in poetry is always a tricky task, trying to get the spirit of the original to fit inside words from another language is hard. But making those words also rhyme and dance like the original is downright herculean. Clive Lawrence did a great job, actually he did better than that, he did fantastic. The only thing that could have made this book even better would be to have the original french facing the translation, so you can really see the work involved and just how close Lawrence comes to Ronsard's. That would be the ideal setting of the Amours de Cassandre sequence, and I hope Fyfield books considers reissuing it someday in a deluxe form.

As for Cassandra herself, that teasing perfection from long ago, that drove a man wild with words? She must have been glamour incarnate from the sounds of it. Do frenchmen quote Ronsard when they court their sweethearts? I am put in mind of Sir Philip Sidney's courtly adoration crossed with Elizabeth Barret Browning's intensity in her 'Sonnets from the Portuguese'. Oh my, to be young and in love. If you know such a creature you may want to hand them a copy of this new translation, and they may hear their own thoughts echoed back to them.

(If you can't get a hold of a copy of the french, there is currently a free version of Les Amours available on amazon kindle.)