Collected PoemsMy rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was my first direct encounter with Rimbaud. I’ve read works by people he’s influenced but this was my first time with my eyes on his words. I enjoyed the opportunity, if not all the works. I liked “Sun and Skin” the best, and enjoyed “The Dresser”. I was blown away by the introduction to “A Season in Hell.”

I really enjoyed the side-by-side French original and English translation format. My French is just good enough to get by with help from dictionaries (physical and Google Translate). I liked the French the best as some of the translator’s choices didn’t fit with how I read the original. However, it’s always easy to second guess word choices and passage tones when the translator has taken the effort to do the entire work. One thing, though, the translator chose not to follow Rimbaud’s rhyming scheme. He says “Rhyme in English can be tyrannical, and prone to unwanted comic effects; I have almost always eschewed it” (p. xxvii). The rhyming in the French made it flow wonderfully, so I feel the author should have at least tried it in a few poems. He wouldn’t have been compromising the author’s intent.