Renée Vivien & Tristan Corbière: Four poems, translated from French by Joshua Edward
About this episode
This episode features translations of four poems by Tristan Corbière and Renée Vivien, exploring themes of poetry and seafaring.
Read these poems on the Modern Poetry in Translation website: https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poem/four-poems-3/ Joshua Edward writes in the introduction: Every Translation Is a Shipwreck Born and raised on an island, I’ve always dreamed of life at sea, but lacking ‘boat money’ and unable to tell a bowline from a marlinspike, I’ve lamentably remained onshore. Still, I indulge in the idea that the poet’s vocation is similar (at least in outline) to that of the sailor. Aren’t both considered diminished remnants of romantic and impetuous eras? And don’t both occupations hazard fatal depths? These are the waters I’m currently interested in plying, and the poets translated here, Tristan Corbière and Renée Vivien, are well suited to this double dream of poetry and seafaring. Both these poets often take the ocean as their subject, and both are considered what Paul Verlaine called poètes maudits: damned or absolute poets, who’ve gone to the art’s greatest depths. Speaking of damned, it’s easy to also view translators as seafarers. Every translator is a voyager returned from a trip, who wants to repeat the experience with others. But this second journey uses only dead reckoning and…
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