The first-ever selected poems in English of the important 19th-century
Belgian poet and author of classic novel Bruges la Morte.
Georges Rodenbach is known first and foremost for his famous 1892 novel
Bruges la Morte, and it is for his connection with Bruges that he is
always remembered. Bruges was his muse, the landscape in which he
attempted to reveal the significance of what appeared lifeless or
unconnected to art. Using the symbolist devices of suggestion and mood,
in these poems Rodenbach presents the decaying Bruges as a medieval
corpse, full of melancholy, decline and loneliness, laid out for him to
ërescueí through his work.
Georges Rodenbach (1855-1898) was educated in Ghent alongside his
friend Emile Verhaeren. Prodigious in short stories, novels as well as
poetry, he was the first Belgian writer of his circle to move to Paris,
and find support from his French counterparts. His poetry influenced
writers such as Proust, Zweig and Rilke. Rodenbach died in Paris of ill
health in 1898, aged only 43.
Will Stone was born in 1966 and now divides his time between Belgium
and England. His first poetry collection Glaciation (2009) won the
international Glen Dimplex Award for poetry in 2008. His published
translations include To The Silenced ñ Selected Poems of Georg Trakl
(2005) and the first English translation of Journeys, Stefan Zweigís
travel writings (2010).
