![]() ![]() In The Light Of is one of many translation projects Carson has undertaken.Ĭarson admits the art of translation is often diminished if one takes a literal word for word approach. Rimbaud was fiercely anti-respectability, and took a certain delight in squalor, therefore his reactions to the horror and opulence of cities is indeed complicated.” In retrospect, we can read some of them as critiques of industrial society. The poems are visceral reactions: they come out in their own weird and zany logic. “I don’t know if “express” is the right word for what Rimbaud was doing that word implies that the poet begins with some kind of manifesto which he then illustrates in poetry. Should we see what he was trying to express in these poems, as both his horror, and fascination with the modern metropolis, and how capitalism destroys the nature it makes profit from? Much of the imagery in Illuminations dichotomises both the awe and disgust Rimbaud discerned in the 19th century city. By transforming the majority of Rimbaud’s prose poems into verse, Carson says he became particularly aware of the musicality and cadence, which Rimbaud embodied in the original work. I wanted Rimbaud’s dreamlike imagery to rhyme, chime, and echo: to make some kind of music to my ear,” says Carson. “Any translations I had read of Illuminations hitherto, seemed flat, so I decided to rewrite them in the rhyming couplets of the classical French alexandrine. But the more you examine them, and read the French aloud, you can see the prose has metre, and occasional rhyme embedded in it.” “The temptation with Rimbaud’s Illuminations - because the pieces are ostensibly in prose - is to render them more or less word for word, thus ignoring their music. In The Light Of displays 22 verse interpretations as well as three prose versions of the prose poems from Rimbaud’s Illuminations.Ĭarson begins our conversation by explaining how “literal meaning” can be a problematic phrase when it comes to translations of poetry. Within a week, Carson found he had enough material to make an entire collection. His words were to accompany an art exhibition at Maynooth University. ![]() There is no universally defined order to the poems in "Illuminations", while many scholars believe the order of the poems to be irrelevant, this edition begins traditionally with "Après Le Deluge" or "After the Flood." Albert Camus hailed Rimbaud as "the poet of revolt, and the greatest." The worth of this praise for Rimbaud can be seen in "Illuminations", one of the most exemplary works of his poetic talent.Last year, Ciaran Carson was approached by the National University of Ireland to reinterpret some versions of those Rimbaud’s poems. Of these forty-two poems almost all are in a prose poem format, the two exceptions are "Seapiece" and "Motion", which are vers libre. All forty-two of the poems generally considered as part of "Illuminations" are collected together here in this edition. Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud's lover, suggested the publication of these poems, written between 18, in book form. This uncompleted suite of poems by French poet Arthur Rimbaud was first published serially in the Paris literary review magazine "La Vogue." The magazine published part of "Illuminations" from May to June 1886. ![]()
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