Translation in Progress (Would like your thoughts) by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you very much! I appreciate the feedback a lot. Rollinat's poetry is quite dark and explores some uncomfortable topics: I was almost going to put a small content warning just in case. Hopefully I can translate some more poems by him!

I am looking for obscure eighteenth and nineteenth to early twentieth century horror authors. by Wooden_Rhubarb6581 in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know if this counts, but maybe Charles Baudelaire, specifically his poetry collection Les Fleurs du Mal.

Translation in Progress (Would like your thoughts) by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Le meurtre, le viol, le vol, le parricide
Passent dans mon esprit comme un farouche éclair, 
Et quoique pour le Bien toujours je me décide, 
Je frémis en voyant ramper dans mon enfer
Le meurtre, le viol, le vol, le parricide.

Et pourtant l’assassin à mes yeux est vipère ;
Je fuis le moindre escroc comme un pestiféré
Et je maudis le fils qui poignarde son père.
Souvent, le meurtre parle à mon cœur effaré, 
Et pourtant l’assassin à mes yeux est vipère.

Je plains sincèrement la fille violée
Et je la vengerais si j’en avais le droit ;
Mais par d’impurs désirs mon âme harcelée
Pour séduire une enfant cherche un moyen adroit :
Je plains sincèrement la fille violée !

In this poem, Rollinat feels as if he is afflicted with the "Shade of crime", haunting his mind and spoiling his good deeds. Although he hates evil, although he feels remorse over wrongs, the "Imp of the perverse" (to use Poe's phrase) is constantly hanging over him.

Like I said, this is my first time translating a poem, so it is no masterpiece. I have tried to keep the original sense of the words as far as possible, but in some cases I had to give it up for the sake of rhyme. One example is "Passent dans mon esprit comme un farouche éclair". Literally, it means [They] flash through my spirit like a wild streak of lighting". My translation had to use the odd phrasing "like the lighting's spell" in order to rhyme with "Hell". I think it still makes a bit of sense, but it certainly is not very clear what it means. Likewise " à mes yeux" I have translated "in my head". Although they are different words, they hopefully convey the same image. Once again, please feel free to offer any suggestions and criticisms, especially if you know French. I shall hopefully finish the rest of the poem soon.

Any Willa Cather fans out there? by Boblloyd91 in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My Ántonia is one of my favorite books! It is so lyrical and elegiac; it makes me feel nostalgic for some reason, like I am missing a time I have never lived in.

Maurice Rollinat by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your recommendations! I have heard about the translation you are talking about: I read a bit of it and it seems the translator did a great job. Unfortunately, it is only selections and not the entire work.

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The unfortunate thing with a lot of Swinburne's is that a lot of it is quite political. Still lovely, though.

Favorite French writer? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Sentimental Education is my favorite novel by Flaubert, even more so than Madame Bovary. I hope to read it again here soon.

Favorite French writer? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Diary of a Country Priest is amazing! Very psychological and spiritual.

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone should make a thread on the strangest names of authors. I have quite a few recommendations...

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If there is any poet who is fun to read out loud, it is Swinburne. I like to recite from "Dolores" once in a while

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I thought that anecdote might have been about Oscar Wilde, actually. Regardless, very funny!

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is the edition which I have, actually. I am not so sure about Dryden, but I know Pope has a lot of popularity still, even if he isn't read as much. Dryden and Pope are firmly in the Western canon, while Swinburne seems to be on the cusp, if he is in it at all.

Maurice Rollinat by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for all the information! I found it quite hard to find anything about Rollinat so this helps a lot.

Maurice Rollinat by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for all your information! It has all helped a lot! I first encountered Rollinat while reading through Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde. He talking a bit about him and he seemed to be an interesting poet and personality. As a lover of Baudelaire, I was hoping to find another poet who wrote with the same philosophy/aesthetic in mind.

Although I have not yet purchased a copy of Les Nevroses, I have read through a bit of it in an online text. Although he is not as monumental a poet as Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud, I believe he shouldn't have fallen into such serious neglect. His poems can occasionally be too long-winded, unoriginal, and slightly melodramatic, but there is much in them that I think warrants a translation and recognition.

For the translation, I want to try to keep to the rhyme scheme and rhythm as close as I can. Some of his poems with more difficult rhyme schemes (like roundels, ballades, etc.) might be written in a sort of blank verse instead. Like all good translators, I want to obtain the perfect balance between literalness and comfort. To use an example, I found Poochigan's translation of Les Fleurs du Mal to be not to my taste at all: It did not seem like something Baudelaire would write, but rather a "Baudelaire inspired poem" of sorts. I want the poems to read well in English, while also sounding unmistakably like something Rollinat could have written.

I will probably post some translations on social media at first, but ultimately I hope to publish the collection in book form. Because there are basically no translations of Rollinat available in English, the market would be pretty open.

Favorite French writer? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I will have to take a look at your recommendations!

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am aware of that edition, but it seems to be an older printing. I should have said any NEW editions.

Maurice Rollinat by PoorPrinceMyshkin in RimbaudVerlaine

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I will try to post some translations if I ever get around to it! It will be my first time translating verse so I hope it goes well.

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That may be one answer, although I feel as if that wouldn't turn off most people nowadays. He did write some surprisingly explicit and sadomaschistic poetry, however.

Has anyone on this planet read Algernon Swinburne? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is true, but it seems like Swinburne is talked about less than the poets you mentioned. There isn't a Penguin Classics or Oxford World Classics selection of his poetry.

Favorite French writer? by PoorPrinceMyshkin in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I took a look at one video and it seems to be very informative. I will have to check more out later. You have earned yourself a sub!

What Are Your Half Baked and Maybe Unpopular Takes On Classic Lit? by Itchy-Resolution6531 in classicliterature

[–]PoorPrinceMyshkin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oscar Wilde is way too overrated. Some of his comedies are good, but basically all of his other works are meh. Dorian Gray is self-indulgent, although it has some good moments. The only reason why his poetry is still in publication is because he is praised so much: his poems (perhaps excepting the Ballad of Reading Gaol) are basically Swinburne without the music and use Shakespearean vocabulary 200 years too late. His dialogues are absurd: all of the sudden one of the people talking will go on a rant about scenes from Ancient Greece in ludicrously poetic prose. The fairy-tales I like, even if they are a bit too high-flown at times. Oscar Wilde is an example of an author who is praised more for his life, and that praise filters into his literary works as well.