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drcaligari's review
5.0
oh. lesbian love letter. love poems to a lover but also to every other lesbian in existence and in time. love that reaches beyond and comes back, a cosmic hug. community that surpasses the limitations of time.
eavans's review
4.0
A lovely little selection of Vivien's work. I particularly loved "Words to a Lover", "You for Whom I Wrote", and "The Touch". This publication has two translators (occasionally including the same poems), with the first have carried by Margaret Porter and the latter by Catherine Kroger. Both have very different styles of translations, with Porter creating an English rhyme scheme to mimic Vivien's, while Kroger adhering more to a literal one. I'll illustrate with "You for Whom I Wrote:
I really loved Catherine Kroger's translations—conservative while still enamoring, all while keeping Vivien's original French flavor we've all come to love (though I must forworn I am a literalist when it comes to translations). And just in case you're not reading with translation difficulties in mind or want to show a friend a poem that's probably more readable than Kroger's, Porter is still there to savor and pin-up without looking like a tasteless academic freak.
I recommend for people interested in Vivien's work to check out A Crown of Violets first, especially the new 2017 edition as it contains so many poems with the advantage of the dual French-English format for reference (and because I know how hard it is to get a copy of this if you don't want to pay an exorbitant sum). Very lovely little gem of queer female history I am so proud to own and enjoy!
Songerez-vous, parmi le désordre charmant
De vos cheveux épars, de vos robes défaites :
« Cette femme, à travers les sanglots et les fêtes,
A porté ses regards et ses lèvres d’amant. » (original)
Will you sit dreaming, amid the charming disarray
Of disheveled hair, open robes, of hers you never discover
Wherever you look: "Whether on day of mourning or festival day,
This woman wore always her glance, her lips of a lover." (Porter)
Will you dream, amongst the charming disorder
Of your scattered hair, and your undone robes:
"This woman, through tears and joy
Maintained her gaze and her lover's lips." (Kroger)
I really loved Catherine Kroger's translations—conservative while still enamoring, all while keeping Vivien's original French flavor we've all come to love (though I must forworn I am a literalist when it comes to translations). And just in case you're not reading with translation difficulties in mind or want to show a friend a poem that's probably more readable than Kroger's, Porter is still there to savor and pin-up without looking like a tasteless academic freak.
I recommend for people interested in Vivien's work to check out A Crown of Violets first, especially the new 2017 edition as it contains so many poems with the advantage of the dual French-English format for reference (and because I know how hard it is to get a copy of this if you don't want to pay an exorbitant sum). Very lovely little gem of queer female history I am so proud to own and enjoy!
vasha's review
2.0
When Renée Vivien wrote her first poems, she was way too much under the influence of Baudelaire's "femmes damnées". Remembering the perfumed embraces of your cold white arms, I burn to drink the bitter poison of your impure kiss! However, she did get better. There's a few interesting items here; "To the Unknown Divinity", "You for Whom I Wrote", "Let a Wave Take It..." There's a series of expansions on fragments of Sappho, which don't fare well next to the (apparent) simplicity of the originals. Some of the later poems actually express happy, satisfied love.
There are two translators here, and sometimes they both did a version of one poem. Sadly, Catharine Kroger's translations are lumpishly literal, and sometimes awkward to the point of unintelligibility. Margaret Porter fares much better at achieving a decent poem in English, in appropriately lavish style, though at the price of having to diverge far from the French text.
There are two translators here, and sometimes they both did a version of one poem. Sadly, Catharine Kroger's translations are lumpishly literal, and sometimes awkward to the point of unintelligibility. Margaret Porter fares much better at achieving a decent poem in English, in appropriately lavish style, though at the price of having to diverge far from the French text.
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