The Trace They Wished to Leave

Contact: www.poetryintranslation.org

POETRY IN TRANSLATION

Sophie Lewis will present her translations of the prose poems of Charles Cros (1842-88) “Key in the Parisian cabaret scene of the 1870s and ‘80s, Cros wrote poetry for the magazines, performed comic monologues at café gatherings and spent his days on scientific projects including the invention of a prototype phonograph. More lyrical than Baudelaire’s, less obscure than Rimbaud’s, Cros’s eight prose poems are only now available in full to English readers” (Sophie Lewis)..

Sam Bootle will present the poetry of Jules Laforgue (1860-87) “Jules Laforgue has tended to find more appreciators in the English-speaking world than in France. Most notably, T. S. Eliot cited Laforgue as a major influence on his early work; this highlights the proto-modernist elements of Laforgue’s poetry, which include free verse and a self-ironising poetic voice. The Derniers Vers, translations of which I will be presenting, embody some of these elements, whilst retaining traces of the post-Romantic heritage” (Sam Bootle).

Sebastian Hayes will be talking about Arthur Rimbaud (1854-91) “Rimbaud is often presented as an uncompromising individualist and precursor of the Surrealists. But he also wrote many political and social poems and his central concern was to find the ‘secret formula’ for changing the world and regenerating fallen humanity” (Sebastian Hayes).

Poetry in Translation is a series organised by Sebastian Hayes, co-Director of Brimstone Press Ltd.

Price: £5.00 / £3.00

Time: 7:30pm