(P/B) WOMEN/MEN

Παρουσίαση

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) wrote three secret collections of verse, of which Femmes and Hombres remained almost unobtainable even in France until the 1970s. These strangely unrespectable poems celebrate the pleasures of sex, with women and men respectively, in loving detail - reversing the old view of Verlaine as a limp impressionist. Alistair Elliot's metrical translations brilliantly echo the vigour, good humour and skill of the originals, which accompany them in this bilingual edition. (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

INTRODUCTION
Women
Openers
To the one they call cold
Foursome
Triolets for a virtue in excuse for mine being small
Royal tastes
Girls I
Girls II
To Madame
Anointed vessel
High romance
Low scene
A note to Lily
For Rita
At the dance
Surrender
Treats
The way the ladies ride
Paying tribute
A brief moral
Men
Now, poet, don't be sacrilegious
A thousand and three
Acornesque I
Acornesque II
On a statue
Meeting
Climb on, as women do to ride
Climb on, as women do to ride
A crumb or two of shit and cheese
He's an awkward bedfellow and I love to keep
As women, surely, gain so much
Even without presenting arms
In that cafe crowded with fools we stood
Virgin verses (1860)
Oh my lovers
Lines on the arsehole: a sonnet by Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud
NOTES
APPENDIX
Sadism
"Now poet, don't forget: no blasphemies!"