The Flowers of Evil (1857)

H1.31.9

***** : Lu et relu. Ces poemes m'accompagnent depuis l'adolescence

I don't speak French and can't read more than a few words here and there, but as I was reading Howard's non-rhyming translation, I felt for the first time I was seeing into the mind of Baudelaire. Surely it couldn't have been the translator's mind. These poems are full of disturbing images and very dark observations, and they aren't completely clear on a first or even second reading, but the experience of reading them is still riveting, and unlike some poetry, it makes you want to re-read them. And read criticism to better understand them. Perhaps like Confucius's Analects, you need to read more than one translation to really gain a better understanding. I may try that. In the meantime, I highly recommend this edition. I should point out, for those who care, that while it has both the French and English versions of the poems, these are in separate sections of the book--not on facing pages. So if you know some French and want to compare side-by-side, you're out of luck and may want to purchase another edition. ( )

LB-3

** This review is only for the audiobook version from MP3 Audiobook Classics narrated by Douglas Harvey **

My policy is not to give a rating for a book I can't finish. After about a poem and a half, I gave up on this one. I will admit that difficult, translated poetry may not be the most suitable thing to listen to as an audiobook, especially if you aren't reading the text at the same time, but I still feel pretty certain that Douglas Harvey's narration is about as sub-par as it gets. I could have done a better job myself. Avoid, avoid, avoid.