The modernist masterpiece that is Arthur Rimbaud s Illuminations has been given new life with the publication of John Ashbery s dazzling (The Economist) new translation, widely hailed as one of the literary events of the year. Presented with French text in parallel and a preface by its translator, Ashbery s rendering powerfully evokes the glittering, kaleidoscopic beauty of the original".
作者简介
在1891年去世时,亚瑟·兰波还不为先锋派所知,但他已成为二十世纪文化中具有影响力的人物之一。1854年,兰波出生在法国查理维尔,他的家人搬到奥尔良,在他8岁的时候,他开始在罗斯萨特养老金学院学习拉丁语和希腊语。兰波不喜欢上学,但他在学业上很出色,在一位家庭教师的鼓励下,他试着写诗。此后不久,兰波将他的作品寄给了著名的象征主义诗人保罗·魏尔伦,得到了一张去巴黎的单程票。1871年9月底,16岁的兰波和魏尔伦一起引发了文学史上最臭名昭著的动荡事件之一。他们的关系在1873年夏天达到了沸点,魏尔伦被越来越疏远的兰波弄得沮丧不堪,酒后暴怒,用左轮手枪袭击了他的情人。该法案将魏尔伦送进监狱,而兰波则回到查理维尔,在地狱里完成他的工作。第二年,兰波和诗人热尔曼·努瓦一起来到伦敦,编辑并出版了他的《超验启示》。这是兰波的最后出版物。1880年,他完全放弃了写作,在也门做了一名商人,过着更为稳定的生活,直到膝盖疼痛迫使他返回法国接受治疗。1891年,兰波被误诊为结核性滑膜炎,医生建议切除他的腿。直到截肢后,医生才确定兰波实际上患的是癌症。兰波于1891年11月在马赛去世,享年37岁。他现在被认为是象征主义和超现实主义的圣人,他的作品包括《Le bateau ivre》(1871)、《Une Saison en Enfer》(1873)和《Les Illuminations》(1873),被广泛认为是影响从毕加索到鲍勃迪伦等艺术家的主要因素。
Unknown beyond the avant-garde at the time of his death in 1891, Arthur Rimbaud has become one of the most liberating influences on twentieth-century culture. Born Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud in Charleville, France, in 1854, Rimbaud’s family moved to Cours d’Orléans, when he was eight, where he began studying both Latin and Greek at the Pension Rossat. While he disliked school, Rimbaud excelled in his studies and, encouraged by a private tutor, tried his hand at poetry. Shortly thereafter, Rimbaud sent his work to the renowned symbolist poet Paul Verlaine and received in response a one-way ticket to Paris. By late September 1871, at the age of sixteen, Rimbaud had ignited with Verlaine one of the most notoriously turbulent affairs in the history of literature. Their relationship reached a boiling point in the summer of 1873, when Verlaine, frustrated by an increasingly distant Rimbaud, attacked his lover with a revolver in a drunken rage. The act sent Verlaine to prison and Rimbaud back to Charleville to finish his work on A Season in Hell. The following year, Rimbaud traveled to London with the poet Germain Nouveau, to compile and publish his transcendent Illuminations. It was to be Rimbaud’s final publication. By 1880, he would give up writing altogether for a more stable life as merchant in Yemen, where he stayed until a painful condition in his knee forced him back to France for treatment. In 1891, Rimbaud was misdiagnosed with a case of tuberculosis synovitis and advised to have his leg removed. Only after the amputation did doctors determine Rimbaud was, in fact, suffering from cancer. Rimbaud died in Marseille in November of 1891, at the age of 37. He is now considered a saint to symbolists and surrealists, and his body of works, which include Le bateau ivre (1871), Une Saison en Enfer (1873), and Les Illuminations (1873), have been widely recognized as a major influence on artists stretching from Pablo Picasso to Bob Dylan.
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet John Ashbery (1927―2017) translated many French writers, including Alfred Jarry, Pierre Reverdy, and Raymond Roussel. In 2011 he was awarded the National Book Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
以下为对购买帮助不大的评价