From Absinthe to Abyssinia: Selected Miscellaneous, Obscure and Previously Untranslated Works of Jean-Nicolas-Arthur Rimbaud
Poetry. Translation. Translated from the French by Mark Spitzer. One of the many common beliefs about History's mostmythic poet is that he gave up writing after vanishing from France.After 130 years of misinformation, FROM ABSINTHE TO ABYSSINIA dispels this rumor and others by presenting works of Rimbaud's post-Paris prosethat have never before been seen in English. This collection, translated by Mark Spitzer, alsoincludes a section of poetry which includes highly innovative versionsof some...
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Even the most accurate and faithful translators of Rimbaud (Louis Varese, Wallace Fowlie, and Oliver Bernard) have misunderstood the poetry, and consequently, have left less-than-accurate impressions of his work. Mark Spitzer asserts "No translation should ever be trusted, especially when the text is so complex that even the experts in the original language are stumped by multiple meanings, secret syntax and elusive argot. Such is the case with Rimbaud." With From Absinthe to Abyssinia, Spitzer strives to retain the meaning of the original text, honoring the imagination of the poet. He offers a balance in what we know about Rimbaud, in relationship to what we pretend to know. About the AuthorMark Spitzer has degrees in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, the University of Colorado, and Louisiana State University. He is the translator of The Collected Poems of Georges Bataille (Dufour Editions, 1998), and the co-translator of The Church, by Louis-Ferdinand Celine (Green Integer, 2002). He has also translated Jean Genet, Blaise Cendrars, and other works by Celine and Bataille. His novels include Bottom Feeder (Creative Arts, 1999) and Chum (Zoland Books, 2001).
AcknowledgementsixIntroduction1Part IPoetryJuveniliaZounds17Dead Baby20Jesus of Nazareth23Invocation to Venus26Three Kisses27Poetry After 1870Scraps31Iranian Caravan Scrap35Reconstructed Scraps I36Reconstructed Scraps II37DamnineticsYoung Glutton38Drunk Driver39Sealed Lips Seen in Rome40Damn Little Cherub41Lily42Humanity43Fete Galante44Memories of a Stupid Old Man45Coppee Copy47State of Siege?48Melancholy Hyperimagism, after Belmontet49Old Guard50Potty Poetry51Drunken Boat52Wastelands of Love56Rough DraftsSeveral in Samaria...59In the Thin Bewitching Oxygen...60Bethzatha, the Pool...61Sketches of Season in HellBad Blood62False Conversion64Excerpts from Season in Hell [characters not reproducible]66Bad Blood68Vi(o)lationsCock Sonnet70Ass Sonnet71Asshole Sonnet72Bottom73Dream74Part IILetters, Reports, Work from Africa and AfterFragment from a Letter to Verlaine, April 187277Rimbaud's Statement to the Police, July 10, 187378Verlaine's Statement to the Police, July 10, 187380Letter to the American Consul in Bremen, May 14, 187781Report on the Ogaden, December 10, 188382Letter to His Mother and Sister, December 21, 188389To the Bosphore Egyptien, August 188790Letter to Vice-Consul Gaspary, November 9, 1887103Letter to Ilg, February 1, 1888110Letter to Ilg, March 29, 1888114Letter to Ugo Ferrandi, April 2, 1888116Letter to His Mother and Sister, April 4, 1888117Letter to Ugo Ferrandi, April 10, 1888119Letter to Ilg, April 12, 1888120Letter to Ugo Ferrandi, April 30, 1889122Letter to Ilg, September 7, 1889123Letter to Ilg, September 18, 1889130Excerpts from Letters to Ilg, October 7 & 9, 1889132Letter to Ilg, December 11, 1889135Letter to His Mother and Sister, January 3, 1890136Letter to King Menelik, April 7, 1890137Letter to Armand Savoure, April 1890139Excerpts from a Letter to Ilg, September 20, 1890141Letter to Ilg, November 20, 1890143Notes of the Damned, April 7-17, 1891145Letter to Ras Mekonene, Governor of Harar, May 30, 1891148End Notes149Sources162
