Selected Poems: Dual-Language Edition

by Victor Hugo, Brooks Haxton (Introduction)

For most of his life, Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was the most famous writer in the world. His legacy includes the nineteenth century's most celebrated works of drama, fiction, memoir, and criticism. But in his day Hugo was know foremost as a poet-indeed the greatest French poet of the age. He wrote with passion about history, erotic experience, familial love, philosophy, nature, social justice, art, and mysticism.

In this new bicentennial edition, acclaimed poet and translator Brooks Haxton offers an exquisite selection of Hugo's finest work: love poems, historical tableaux, elegy, and idyll, including his incomparable "Boaz Asleep," which Marcel Proust praised as the most beautiful poem of the nineteenth century.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, French Literature, France

144 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2002

About the author

After Napoleon III seized power in 1851, French writer Victor Marie Hugo went into exile and in 1870 returned to France; his novels include The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).

This poet, playwright, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, and perhaps the most influential, important exponent of the Romantic movement in France, campaigned for human rights. People in France regard him as one of greatest poets of that country and know him better abroad.

Reviews

[michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three stars for Brooks Haxton’s translation but five stars for Victor Hugo.

[John Reis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed a number of these poems, especially the poems about his daughter. I also enjoyed "Boaz Sleeps", and " The Trumpet of Judgment." "How it Happened" especially powerful.

Some lines from "Whose Fault is This?": "Have you forgotten that your liberator is a book?; "While reading you grow sober, lucid, kind."; "Their teachings enter you the way first light breaks into an open cloister..."; "You see the good inside yourself made better."

[Lanny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forget where I read it, but there was a population swell
traced back directly to when the announcement was made of Hugo's death. A great tide of anguish and romance washed over the streets of Paris. I've seen pictures of the funeral procession. As throngy as any Ayatollah's affair. Amazing!

[Hayley Moorhouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full-throated, passionate, political, traversing heaven hell and earth

[Trounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

До 1848 года Гюго рассуждал о разном, затрагивая любые годные ему темы, даже посвящал стихи людям искусства, вроде Дюрера и Данте. Но с 1848 года Гюго обрёл настоящего себя, так как к власти пришёл Наполеон III, провозгласивший Вторую республику. Гюго пророчески предупреждает французов о грядущих несчастьях, если ненавистный ему политический деятель останется у власти. Его ожидания оправдались: в 1852 году Наполеон III отказывается от республики и устанавливает в стране Вторую империю, чем поверг Виктора Гюго в неистовство. Отныне и до 1870 года Гюго будет честить родную страну, желая образумить сограждан на новую борьбу.

В своём творчестве Гюго постоянно переходит к революционным мотивам. Касается ли это описания природы или наставления внукам — Виктор обязательно во второй половине стихотворения призывает народ идти на штурм. Он не прибегал к аллегориям, а всегда говорил прямым текстом. И у него превосходно получалось доносить до читателя свои мысли. Даже потомки могут найти в его ёмких стихах отражение современной им реальности. Гюго смотрел дальше своей жизни, и его эмоции обязательно кто-нибудь возьмёт для воззваний в будущем.

(c) Trounin

[zia]

it really pains me to be mean to a translator because their job is so difficult and thankless but what on earth was brooks haxton thinking? thank god this is a dual language edition. there are many poems where the translation is gorgeous and the english version stands up beautifully, but there are also SO many that omit large chunks of the originals, add in strange new lines where they didn’t exist, and misconstrue the original message egregiously. this desperately needed editing and either more confidence or more competence from the translator. hugo is one of my favorite poets and this edition just broke my heart. it’s so obvious that haxton is capable because there are many many poems where the translation is incredible but when you read the rest and then read the translator’s footnotes it just feels like he gave up. you shouldn’t have to speak french to experience hugo’s work but for this edition you must.

i’m so glad this book has a high rating because it means english speakers are loving hugo’s poetry but i just can’t rate it. i adored the original poetry but i was baffled by the translation of more than half of the collection. please, please more english translations of hugo and not half-baked ones like this.

[grace 🐈‍⬛ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don’t read a lot of poetry but i’m trying to! this was so pretty. it had the poems in french on one side and the english translation on the other, which is great for me because i’m trying to learn french👩🏻‍🎨

victor has such a way with words i ate these poems up. here’s some excerpts that i loved…

“she gave gifts the way some steal,
in secret, for the thrill.”

“to feed our souls on heaven,
the way bees do with honey.”

“What’s to become of the vanishing days?
can anyone see the man I was?
Is there in my bedazzled eyes still anything
of the gleam of youth?

Or am I now alone, worn out, merely to ask,
where nothing answers;
Wind, am I not like you in breath? Waves,
do I not break like you?

And shall I see no more of what I loved?
Night inside me falls. So,
tell me, World, dissolving at your edges into mist,
am I the ghost and you the grave?”

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the exact version I actually have, so I'm adding this to my "read" list. I'll keep the other version on my list here to remind me that there's an illustrated version of this collection out there.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can really see how Hugo's life affected his poetry. A book full of feeling!

[Eadweard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed them, I thought these were going to be a bit too Romantic for me but they weren't.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice. I can see the influence on Baudelaire and Rimbaud.