La Fontaine Fables, and Other PoemsDuring his life John Cairncross was considered to be the best translator of Racine's works, both from his ability to convey the 'feel' of the original as well as through the accuracy of his translation. One critic has said that Mr. Cairncross's translations are 'the only ones that arc both compulsively readable and capture the style as fairly as our language permits', praise echoed by others, including the New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement. In this collection from the French, Italian, Spanish, German and Chinese, Mr. Cairncross demonstrates his ability with great skill. In La Fontaine's Fables, as in the other translations in this volume, he captures the mood in every case. Each poem appears in the original language as well as in English, and, ending with a number of John Cairncross's own poems, this book is a true pleasure to read. |
Contents
From the French | 12 |
Louise Labé 15261566 | 18 |
Philippe Desportes 15461606 | 32 |
La Fontaine 16261695 | 38 |
18th century epigrammist unidentified | 81 |
Charles Baudelaire 18211867 | 82 |
Stéphane Mallarmé 18421898 | 94 |
From the Italian | 101 |
Eduardo Cacciatore | 107 |
Rafael Alberti 1901 | 114 |
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz | 118 |
Rainer Maria Rilke 18751926 | 124 |
Original Poems | 130 |
APPENDIX | 139 |
Copyright | |