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Which Translation is Best? > Charles Baudelaire

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message 1: by Jimmy (new)

Jimmy (jimmylorunning) | 140 comments Mod
I feel like I should give Les Fleurs du Mal another chance, since I've never particularly loved it. I wonder if a different translation would help (I no longer remember what translation I read way back when). So any suggestions are welcome. If you have a favorite translation, please provide some excerpts so I can compare.


message 2: by Nate D (new)

Nate D (rockhyrax) | 17 comments My girlfriend recently acquired this gorgeously bound 1947 edition. The translation itself is extremely florid and morbid. But as this is Flowers of Evil, I can't really say it isn't likely accurate and true to the spirit. And if it's a dated translation, fine by me. I don't really need 19th century romanticism/decadence to sound modern.


message 3: by Nate D (last edited Oct 12, 2012 01:52PM) (new)

Nate D (rockhyrax) | 17 comments Though I wrote before that I didn't mind the florid, ridiculus wording (lots of middle-Englishisms, thou and dost, mucking things up), not minding and actually enjoying are different matters, and I was ratrher unmoved. I just read a few other Baudelaires in a different translation (Brian Stableford's in The Dedalus Book of Decadence: Moral Ruins), and they're far far more readable and enjoyable. I'll do a comparison here if I can find one that appears in both.

Also, any other suggestions are welcome to me, too.


message 4: by Rise (new)

Rise This site has some various translations - http://fleursdumal.org/poem/099


message 5: by Bryn (last edited Oct 14, 2012 01:46PM) (new)

Bryn Hammond (brynhammond) | 16 comments Might be worth a browse through this: Baudelaire in English, an anthology of translations to try out. I have several translations but I haven't been near them in years... besides, I liked the Fleurs any way I met them.

PS. I like this Penguin Classics series, Poets in Translation - Homer in English (a stand-out, as edited by George Steiner), Virgil in English and I don't know who else.


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