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148 ShorterReviews Paul EluardLast Love Poems of Paul Eluard, translated by Marilyn Kallet, 165pp, $17.95, ISBN978-0-9768449-3-8; CapitalofPain, translatedbyMaryAnnCaws, PatriciaTerry& Nancy Kline, 279pp, $19.95, ISBN978-0-8449-6-9; Love, Poetry, translated by Stuart Kendall, 205pp, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-9768449-7-6(all paperback, all BlackWidowPress). The latest editions fromBoston publisher Black Widow Press offerneweditionsof theearly-twentieth-centuryFrench Surrealist poet, includingStuartKendall’sLove, Poetry, the first Englishversionof Eluard’s 1929collectionL’amour lapoéésie, dedicatedto his Russianfirst wife, Gala (‘I lookedfor you beyondwaiting/beyondmyself/andI love somuchthat I no longer know/whichof us is absent.’). As Kendall recounts in his excellent introduction, afewmonths after completingthe volume andafter Gala hadleft himfor MaxErnst (she later marriedSalvador Dali), Eluardfell inlove withMaria Benz (‘Nusch’), thesubjectof Last Love Poems (‘wearebodytobody weareearthtoearth/Wearebornofeverywherewearewithout limits’). As ever, theseareall high-qualitypublications, with excellent translations andaccompanyingessays fromleading practitionersof theirart. SoleïïmanAdelGuéémar, StateofEmergency , translatedbyTom Cheesman&JohnGoodby, introducedbyLisa Appignanesi, Arc,166pp, paperback, £9.99, ISBN978-1-904614-39-5 AlgerianpoliticalexileGuéémar,nowlivinginWales,might bea newname inFrenchpoetry but, as Lisa Appignanesistates in her introduction to this important work, ‘Britain has inadvertentlyinheriteda political poet of stature, one whose language sings.’ Awardeda recent EnglishPENWriters in TranslationAward, this is at once a disturbinganddeeply movingvolume, chartingbrutal state violence inGuéémar’s homelandas he adopts manydifferent voices andpersonae – theimprisoned, theabusedandthosebereavedbyterror (‘we were scattered into torment/my hand held your/mangled hand/andIranthroughthestreetsofAlgiers/tohugyouinmy
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ShorterReviews 149 arms/ one last time’ as ‘Moonlight’ records). Urgent and unmissable. (For asampleof hisworkandawordabout him, seeMPT3/2and3/6.) RainerMaria Rilke, AReconsideration, Agenda42.3-3, 288pp, paperback, £15ISBN978-0-902400-83-2 Withthe publicationof bothDonPatersonandMartyn Crucefix’s newversions of his poetry (see Charlie Louth’s reviewabove), Rilkeis muchindemandat present. Agenda’s latest issue, whichmight well besub-titled‘EverythingYou EverNeededtoKnowAboutRilke’, isasvitalasever, offering a definitive introductionto the poet withnewtranslations, versions, reviews andessays byleadingtranslators andcommentatorsincludingMichael Hamburger, StephenCohn, Sean O’Brien, andClive Wilmer as well as MartynCrucefix and CharlieLouth. TherearealsotranslationsofessaysaboutRilke by Yves Bonnefoy (KieranHiggins), JeanCassou(Timothy Adèès)andPhilippeJaccottet(JudithBishop),alongside‘Poems To, Onor For Rilke’ byJohnBurnside, Peter Robinsonand W.S. Milne, amongstothers. Indispensable. Arthur Rimbaud. ASeason in Hell, translated by Donald Revell, Omnidawn, 104pp, paperback, $14.95, ISBN978-1890650-30-8 Rimbaud’s poetryis notoriouslytrickytotranslateandhis apparentlylast work, therevolutionaryprose-poem, A SeasonIn Hell , is more difficult thanmost. Fortunatelythe American poet andtranslator DonaldRevell, twice winner of a PEN Centre USAawardfor poetryandanacclaimedtranslator of Apollinaire, is uptothetask, capturingRimbaud’s(probably opium-induced) nightmarish visions. His unconventional translator’sAfterword, alsomakescompellingreading(‘Wedo notforget; youarethegloryof ages. Wehavefaithinpoison. Weknowverywellhowtowasteourlives.’)thoughsomemore

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ShorterReviews

Paul EluardLast Love Poems of Paul Eluard, translated by Marilyn Kallet, 165pp, $17.95, ISBN978-0-9768449-3-8; CapitalofPain, translatedbyMaryAnnCaws, PatriciaTerry& Nancy Kline, 279pp, $19.95, ISBN978-0-8449-6-9; Love, Poetry, translated by Stuart Kendall, 205pp, $18.95, ISBN 978-0-9768449-7-6(all paperback, all BlackWidowPress). The latest editions fromBoston publisher Black Widow Press offerneweditionsof theearly-twentieth-centuryFrench Surrealist poet, includingStuartKendall’sLove, Poetry, the first Englishversionof Eluard’s 1929collectionL’amour lapoéésie, dedicatedto his Russianfirst wife, Gala (‘I lookedfor you beyondwaiting/beyondmyself/andI love somuchthat I no longer know/whichof us is absent.’). As Kendall recounts in his excellent introduction, afewmonths after completingthe volume andafter Gala hadleft himfor MaxErnst (she later marriedSalvador Dali), Eluardfell inlove withMaria Benz (‘Nusch’), thesubjectof Last Love Poems (‘wearebodytobody weareearthtoearth/Wearebornofeverywherewearewithout limits’). As ever, theseareall high-qualitypublications, with excellent translations andaccompanyingessays fromleading practitionersof theirart.

SoleïïmanAdelGuéémar, StateofEmergency , translatedbyTom Cheesman&JohnGoodby, introducedbyLisa Appignanesi, Arc,166pp, paperback, £9.99, ISBN978-1-904614-39-5 AlgerianpoliticalexileGuéémar,nowlivinginWales,might bea newname inFrenchpoetry but, as Lisa Appignanesistates in her introduction to this important work, ‘Britain has inadvertentlyinheriteda political poet of stature, one whose language sings.’ Awardeda recent EnglishPENWriters in TranslationAward, this is at once a disturbinganddeeply movingvolume, chartingbrutal state violence inGuéémar’s homelandas he adopts manydifferent voices andpersonae – theimprisoned, theabusedandthosebereavedbyterror (‘we were scattered into torment/my hand held your/mangled hand/andIranthroughthestreetsofAlgiers/tohugyouinmy

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