A short review by Merryn WilliamsĀ enters fully into the spirit of Jan Owenās Baudelaire-based jeu dāesprit
The Wicked Flowers of Charles Baudelaire: A Selection Limericked
Jan Owen
Shoestring Press
ISBN: 978-1-910323-60-1
74pp Ā£8
Jan Owen is a serious writer who has already translated Baudelaireās Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2015). It is important to say this, because she says herself that her little book is a ādescent from the sublime to the ridiculousā. It comprises eighty-seven limericks, loosely related to poems from Les Fleurs du Mal, and we all know that itās almost impossible for a limerick to sound serious. This Baudelaire is not the tormented soul that his biographer Enid Starkie insists he was but a total hedonist, forever drunk or falling in and out of bed. Which means that a great part ā perhaps the most important part ā of his poetry is lost in translation.
For instance, the famous poem āLāAlbatrosā says that a poet, like the bird, is a monarch in his own realm but in ordinary life inept and helpless:
Heās like a poet. The majestic bird
who rides the storm, defies the men that stalk
him with their arrows ā crashes to the ground,
is mocked! His giant wings wonāt let him walk.
(my translation).
This is how Jan Owen renders it:
We poets seem gauche half the time
Like an albatross trapped in its prime
But caught in full flight
Down the pub Friday night,
Full of beer, we are bloody sublime.
No place here for the tragedy and the vulnerability. Likewise, ā Un Voyage a Cythereā is a deeply disturbing picture of the āisland of loveā, a beautiful place where a corpse is swinging from a gallows and being savaged by birds. This version turns the horror into humour:
Itās pitched to the honeymoon set
But the gallows make newly-weds fret
And the corpse with no nuts
Disgorging its guts
Is not picturesque. Try Tibet.
So, read this book for laughs. I did laugh quite a lot and Jan Owen has sent me back to reading Baudelaire. I canāt find a French original for her āTo the Chief Censorā, but it is still highly relevant and a perfect limerick in English:
Monsieur, you have made me your debtor:
By ignoring both spirit and letter,
You cretinous tort,
You disgrace to the court,
You have spurred me to write even better.
by Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • authors, books, poetry reviews, year 2016 • Tags: authors, books, Merryn Williams, poetry • 0 Comments
A short review by Merryn WilliamsĀ enters fully into the spirit of Jan Owenās Baudelaire-based jeu dāesprit
Jan Owen is a serious writer who has already translated Baudelaireās Selected Poems (Arc Publications, 2015). It is important to say this, because she says herself that her little book is a ādescent from the sublime to the ridiculousā. It comprises eighty-seven limericks, loosely related to poems from Les Fleurs du Mal, and we all know that itās almost impossible for a limerick to sound serious. This Baudelaire is not the tormented soul that his biographer Enid Starkie insists he was but a total hedonist, forever drunk or falling in and out of bed. Which means that a great part ā perhaps the most important part ā of his poetry is lost in translation.
For instance, the famous poem āLāAlbatrosā says that a poet, like the bird, is a monarch in his own realm but in ordinary life inept and helpless:
Heās like a poet. The majestic bird who rides the storm, defies the men that stalk him with their arrows ā crashes to the ground, is mocked! His giant wings wonāt let him walk. (my translation).This is how Jan Owen renders it:
No place here for the tragedy and the vulnerability. Likewise, ā Un Voyage a Cythereā is a deeply disturbing picture of the āisland of loveā, a beautiful place where a corpse is swinging from a gallows and being savaged by birds. This version turns the horror into humour:
So, read this book for laughs. I did laugh quite a lot and Jan Owen has sent me back to reading Baudelaire. I canāt find a French original for her āTo the Chief Censorā, but it is still highly relevant and a perfect limerick in English: