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Synopsis
Shortlisted for the 2011 Popescu Prize for Poetry Translated from a European Language into English, run by the Poetry Society. Contemporary French poetry has long been tagged as being overly cerebral and hermetic. But there exists a very different, thriving tradition which is too often muffled by noisier movements like Surrealism or Minimalism. Into the Deep Street gives voice to this tradition. What links the poets is an acute awareness of the existential instant in both its inward workings and also, crucially, in its outwardness – in the street, on the move. "Jennie Feldman's and Stephen Romer's generous act of advocacy gives us a fresh new insight into French poetry. Their subtle translations are worn lightly: the acuteness of their ear and their gentleness of touch seem a perfect match for the lovely unassuming originals." Poetry Society "Into the Deep Street is the best parallel-text introduction to modern and contemporary French poetry available, partly because the selections are substantial enough to be more than just tasters, and partly because the poets go so well into English. This is not simply due to the excellence of the translations (though that helps), but also to the translatability of what we might call the poets' sensibilities." Patrick McGuinness, TLS "These 'fiercely independent' poets... represent an engaging kind of French writing too often overlooked abroad, partly because of the widespread notion that contemporary French poetry must necessarily be abstract, hermetic, narcissistic, and indigestible. In bold contrast, these seven poets relish daily life, observe nature closely, and occasionally evoke erotic attraction..." John Taylor "Both Feldman and Romer are themselves poets and yet their translations have something touchingly self-effacing about them. Their success lies in recreating the French poet in English words, but in words so carefully placed in the line, that there could be no question of the translator claiming them for his own, assimilating them in some grand lyrical flourish." Sasha Dugdale, Poetry News "[Jean] Follain might be too elusive, too distinctively particular a poet to spawn a school, but the poets here might be said to share with him a modesty of means, a tendency towards compressed forms, a surface clarity and a preference for the material over the abstract or idealised... as a window into the work of seven interesting poets this bilingual selection is invaluable." Poetry Ireland Review From the key figure of Jean Follain, who can freeze an entire period of history in a vignette of a few lines, via the best-known of the close-knit if regionally scattered group, Philippe Jaccottet, to the newer voices of Guy Goffette and Gilles Ortlieb, all these poets are masters of wry brevity and the resonant image. Jennie Feldman’s first collection of poems, The Lost Notebook, was published by Anvil in 2005, as was her selection and translation from Jacques Réda’s poems, Treading Lightly. She lives in Jerusalem. Stephen Romer has been Maître de conférences at the University of Tours since 1991. His anthology 20th Century French Poems was published by Faber in 2002. The latest of his four collections of poetry, Yellow Studio, was published by Carcanet in 2008.
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