This part of our web site highlights Wesleyan University Press’s small and important list of modernist poetry in translation. In 1972, the press published An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Brazilian Poetry, edited by Elizabeth Bishop and Emanuel Brasil. In recent years, the press has published or re-issued a number of new translations of classic modernist works from French, Italian, German, Spanish and other languages. These translations bring important texts into English, sometimes for the first time, sometimes in new forms, prompting appreciation and often reconsideration of the originals. The poems presented here, en face when possible, along with excerpts from essays by the translators, invite us to consider translation as more than a linguistic operation to be evaluated in terms of accuracy or lack thereof, but also as a cultural activity of historical and artistic significance. Click on the book covers below to learn more about the poets, translators, and books in Wesleyan ‘s collection.

 

Alcools

Guillaume Apollinaire’s Alcools
translated by Donald Revell
Guillaume Apollinaire’s The Self-Dismembered Man translated by Donald Revell

Guillaume Apollinaire’s The Self-Dismembered Man translated by Donald Revell
Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil translated by Keith Waldrop

Charles Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil
 translated by Keith Waldrop
Charles Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen translated by Keith Waldrop

 Charles Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen
 translated by Keith Waldrop
BrazilianAnth

Anthology of 20th Century Brazilian Poetry
edited by Elizabeth Bishop and Emanuel Brasil
Joõo Cabral de Melo Neto’s Selected Poetry, 1937-1990 translated by Djelal Kadir

Joõo Cabral de Melo Neto’s Selected Poetry, 1937-1990
 translated by Djelal Kadir
Vicente Huidobro’s Altazor translated by Eliot Weinberger

Vicente Huidobro’s Altazor
 translated by Eliot Weinberger

 

Notebook

Aimé Cesaire’s Notebook of a Return to the Native Land
translated Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith
trilce

Cesar Vallejo’s Trilce, translated by Clayton Eshleman
BooktoBook

From the Book to the Book: An Edmond Jabés Reader
translated by Rosmarie Waldrop
Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès by Rosmarie Waldrop; Richard Stamelman, fwd.

Lavish Absence: Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès
by Rosmarie Waldrop; Richard Stamelman, fwd.
TimesAlone

Times Alone: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado
translated by Robert Bly
Antonia Pozzi’s Breath: Poems and Letters edited & translated by Lawrence Venuti

Antonia Pozzi’s Breath: Poems and Letters
edited & translated by Lawrence Venuti
Steles

Victor Segglen’s Stèles
translated by Timothy Billins and Christopher Bush; Haun Saussy, fwd.
BecauseSea

Blaga Dimitrova’s Because the Sea is Black
tr. Heather McHugh and Nkolais Boris
Collected Poems featuring translations of Pablo Neruda, Georg Trakl, and César Vallejo James Wright

Collected Poems featuring translations of Pablo Neruda, Georg Trakl, and César Vallejo
James Wright
SonnetsOrpheus

 Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus
 translated by David Young
Holderlin cov des4.indd

Friedrich Hölderlin’s Odes and Elegies
translated by Nick Hoff
Chimeras

Chimeras in the Tower: Selected Poems Henrikas Radauskas
translated by Jonas Zdanys
Mirroring

Mirroring: Selected Poems of Vladimir Holan
translated by CG Hanzlicek and Dana Habova