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French poets anyone?

Discussion in 'Entertainment and Technology' started by rudysteiner, Jun 20, 2016.

  1. rudysteiner

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    Hey everyone,

    I'm learning French quite intensively before I start learning it formally in September, and have been told by friends who are fluent in French, that it helps to translate things from French to English, to help learn vocabulary, and I thought I might as well give it a shot, and if I want to be a translator after university, it's good practice.

    Keeping with my passion for literature, I thought I'd start 'easy', by translating some poetry from French poets/poets who write in French/even English collections translated into French. Ideally, I'm looking for 20th-century poets before I move onto 19th and earlier.

    Does anyone have any post-1900 French poetry to recommend? I'm sure there're a few French-speaking people on EC, so hopefully they could help me out.

    Joe.
     
  2. Lazuri

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    It's a bit earlier than your requested timeframe, but Charles Baudelaire is quite good. Le Fleurs Du Mal is his most famous work, I believe.
     
  3. rudysteiner

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    I'll check him out now, thanks for the recommendation!
     
  4. Lazuri

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    No problem. Beware that his stuff can be pretty dark and explicit, though.
     
  5. Wagram

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    I was studying poetry last year and some poems from Robert Desnos were interesting.

    Francis Ponge work Le Parti Pris Des Choses (translated The Voice of Things in english ) Can also be interesting to translate
     
    #5 Wagram, Jun 20, 2016
    Last edited: Jun 20, 2016
  6. mirkku

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    Hi! You can also read songs written by people with actual writing abilities, such as Jacques Brel or Jean-Jacques Goldman. Lovely stuff.
     
  7. Harve

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    Baudelaire is the big one. Rimbaud came a little later and was influenced by him, who also had an interesting relationship with another poet Verlaine.

    The dramatic gay relationships that surround poets are the only reason I can appreciate them I'm afraid.
     
  8. rudysteiner

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    Thanks everyone, I'll check all of these out.