New And Selected Poems

Yves Bonnefoy celebrated translator and critic is widely considered the mostimportant and influential French poet since World War II. Named to the Collegede Fra... » 

Yves Bonnefoy celebrated translator and critic is widely considered the mostimportant and influential French poet since World War II. Named to the Collegede France in 1981 to fill the chair left vacant by the death of Roland BarthesBonnefoy was the first poet honored in this way since Paul Valery. Winner ofmany awards including the Prix Goncourt in 1987 and the Hudson ReviewsBennett Award in 1988 he is the author of six critically acclaimed books ofpoetry.Spanning four decades and drawing on all of Bonnefoys major collections thisselection provides a comprehensive overview of and an ideal introduction to hiswork. The elegant translations many of them new are presented in this duallanguage edition alongside the original French. Several significant worksappear here in English for the first time among them in its entiretyBonnefoys 1991 book of verse The Beginning and the End of the Snow the1988 prose poem Where the Arrow Falls and an important long poem from 1993Wind and Smoke. Together with poems from such classic volumes as In the Lureof the Threshold these new works shed light on the growth as well as thecontinuity of Bonnefoys work.John Naughtons detailed introduction looks at the evolution of Bonnefoyspoetry from the 1953 publication of On the Motion and Immobility of Douvewhich immediately established his reputation as one of Frances leading poetsthrough the 1993 publication of The Wandering Life and its centerpiece Windand Smoke.This is a comprehensive selection that contains examples of work spanningBonnefoys full career of forty years from the groundbreaking Du Mouvementet de lImmobilite de Douvethrough the celebratory Pierre Ecrite to themagical winter landscapes of Americas East Coast and an unsettling reworkingof myth in the recent La Vie Errante . . . The translations which are thework of a variety of hands including Galway Kinnell Emily Grosholz an «