Azure: Poems and Selections from the "Livre" (Wesleyan Poetry Series) - Softcover

"These vivid and utterly convincing translations reopen the poems to controversy, nuance, and innovation. They refresh the poet's reputation as a sovereign enigma."―Donald Revell, author of Tantivy

"Azure collects previously untranslated and high-octane versions of well-known poems from Mr. Mallarmé's killer oeuvre. In the tradition of Pound's Homage to Sextus Propertius, these trans-vers add a spiritedness and contemporariness to one of our most contemporary of poets. Messieurs Bronson-Bartlett and Fernandez have done heavy lifting with their introduction and for the future of Mallarmé studies."―Peter Gizzi

"The best translation is a hundred translations, and Mallarmé, as one of the inaugural monsters of Modernism, needs at least that many even to begin to reveal his complexities. This new one is exceptionally welcome, as it is a poets' Mallarmé, built of what earlier translators have left out. Bronson-Bartlett and Fernandez give particular freedom to Mallarmé's radical music as well as to his essential strangeness. The inclusion of a sizable section of Mallarmé's work-in-eternal-progress, the 'Livre,' never before translated into English, makes a substantial contribution to Mallarmé studies, as does their excellent introduction. Not only a must for Mallarmé enthusiasts, but also simply a grippingly great read!"―Cole Swensen

"In the latter part of Azure, Bronson-Bartlett and Fernandez venture into the darkest patch of the Mallarméan forest―the notes that he made toward his projected 'great work' (usually called the 'Livre'). This is the first extended English translation of the notes, and they carry mystification to the breaking point."―Alex Ross, New Yorker

"Bronson-Bartlett and Fernandez not only showcase Mallarmé's poetic sensibility, genius, beauty and skill, but their own as well."―Diane Goodman, American Book Review