Alcools

by Guillaume Apollinaire

Overview

Guiilaume Apollinaire, a leading figure amongst the young writers and artists in France until his death in 1918, published 'Alcools', his first book of poems, in 1913. With its wide range of verse forms and contrasting registers of style, 'Alcools' had a considerable influence on Surrealist poetry. The poems provide a splendid example of the lyrical art in which the paradoxes of Apollinaire are held in high poetic tension. The editor's introduction and notes take place in the 20th Century and explain allusion and difficulties in the text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781985048614
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	02/04/2018
Pages:	74
Sales rank:	1,152,283
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.15(d)
Language:	French

About the Author

Professor Rees held a Chair of Modern French Literature at the University of Hull.

Table of Contents

The Alcools of Guillaume Apollinare :Why and Why Not
I. Translator's Note
2. Zone/Zone
3. Le Pont Mirabeau/ Mirabeau Bridge
4. La Chanson du Mal Aime/ The Song of the Poorly Loved
5. Les Clochiques/ Saffrons
6. Palais/ Palace
7. Chantre/ Singer
8. Crepuscule / Twilight
9. Annie / Annie
10. La Maison des Morts / The House of the Dead
11. Clotilde /Clotilde
12. Cortege / Possession
13. Marizibil / Marizibil
14. Le Voyageur / The Traveler
15. Marie / Marie
16. La Blanche Neige / The White Snow
17. Poeme lu au marriage d'Andre Salmon / Poem Read at the Marriage of Andre Salmon
18. L'Adieu / The Farewell
19. Salome / Salome
20. La Porte / The Door
21. Saltimbanques / Saltimbanques
22. Le Vent Nocturne / The Wind by Night
23. Lul de Faltenin / Lul de Faltenin
24. La Tzigane / The Gypsy
25. Automne / Autumn
26. L'Emigrant de Landor Road / The Emigrant from Landor Road
27. Rosemonde / Rosemonde
28. Le Brasier / The Brazier
29. Rhenanes / Rhenanes
30. Signe / Sign
31. Un Soir / An Evening
31. La Dame / The Lady
32. Les Fiancailles / The Betrothal
33. Clair de Lune / Clair de Lune
34. 1909/ 1909
35. A la Sante / At the Sante
36. Automne Malade / Sickly Autumn
37. Hotels / Hotels
38. Cors de Chasse / Hunting Horns
39. Vendemiaire / The Harvest Month

Editorial Reviews

Revell (Beautiful Shirt) buoyantly delivers into English the swift visions and odd, bright beauty of Alcools (originally published in 1913), arguably one of this century's most inventive and influential books of poetry. Apollinaire, writes Revell, ``introduced the century to its true self.'' He popularized the term ``surrealism'' and, in poems like the sparkling ``Zone'' and the more magisterial but no less energetic ``The Harvest Month,'' strove to bring a form of cubism to poetry through the use of verbal collage, polyphony and highly extracted urban imagery, all of which later had a profound effect on American Modernism and the Beats. In translations facing the original French, Revell has maintained the deliberate awkwardness of Apollinaire's free verse, his informal slant rhymes and assonance. Contoured and complex, Alcools has aged well, retaining its ability to illuminate the modern experience with rare force and whimsy: ``Listen to me I am the gullet of Paris/ If it pleases me I will swallow all of creation/ Listen to my songs of cosmic drunkenness...'' (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

French poetry does not come over very well in English, in what Henry James called 'our own less pensive tongue.' And this I feel is the signal excellence of what Revell does with Alcools as a whole: he translates into a lighter, quicker, more spontaneous tone than we are accustomed to. He parallels the dizzing velocity of Apollinaire's French while remaining legible in English. It is an unfussy version-personal yet not eccentric-that will give readers the chance to taste the source.