Arthur Rimbaud, “Seascape” (Marine)

arthur-rimbaud.jpg

Silver and copper chariots—
Steel and silver ship’s bows—
Hammer the foam,—
Heave up stumps of brambles.
     The currents of the heath,
And the huge ruts of the ebb tide
Swirl toward the east,
Toward the pillars of the forest,—
Toward the timbers of the pier,
Whose angle is struck by whirlpools of light.

W.W. Norton has published a new translation of Illuminations by John Ashbery. Thanks to Criticism &c, you can compare Ashbery to the Louise Varèse translation, and Poetry has published four of the poems—“Genie,” “Morning of Drunkenness,” “Royalty,” and “To a Reason”—as well as Ashbery’s introductory remarks.

And here’s Ashbery reading from “Promontory” earlier this year at the New School…

17 May 2011 | poetry |