Yves Bonnefoy, celebrated translator and critic, is widely considered
the most important and influential French poet since World War II. Named
to the Collé ge de France in 1981 to fill the chair left vacant by the
death of Roland Barthes, Bonnefoy was the first poet honored in this way
since Paul Valé ry. Winner of many awards, including the Prix Goncourt
in 1987 and the "Hudson Review" 's Bennett Award in 1988, he is the
author of six critically acclaimed books of poetry.
Spanning four decades and drawing on all of Bonnefoy's major
collections, this selection provides a comprehensive overview of and an
ideal introduction to his work. The elegant translations, many of them
new, are presented in this dual-language edition alongside the original
French. Several significant works appear here in English for the first
time, among them, in its entirety, Bonnefoy's 1991 book of verse, "The
Beginning and the End of the Snow," the 1988 prose poem "Where the Arrow
Falls," and an important long poem from 1993, "Wind and Smoke." Together
with poems from such classic volumes as "In the Lure of the Threshold,"
these new works shed light on the growth as well as the continuity of
Bonnefoy's work.
John Naughton's detailed introduction looks at the evolution of
Bonnefoy's poetry from the 1953 publication of "On the Motion and
Immobility of Douve," which immediately established his reputation as
one of France's leading poets, through the 1993 publication of "The
Wandering Life" and its centerpiece "Wind and Smoke."
