État

by Anne-Marie Albiach, Keith Waldrop (translstor)

État, 1971, Anne-Marie Albiach's book of poems translated by Keith Waldrop.

Genres: Poetry

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Anne-Marie Albiach was a contemporary French poet and translator.

Reviews

[birdslibrary · Rating 4.75 out of 5]

This was somewhat a battle with the translator, who occasionally neglects to translate certain words (like the title, "State," which is a word used within the poem and should probably match the title of the whole thing) and also insists on translating every instance of "de" as "of" even in cases where it clearly is supposed to be a "by" or "to," problems which one would hope not to have to contend with in a poem of the density, experimentation and complexity of this one. At times, in order to understand it, I would indulge some insane ideas about the text, like that it's supposed to be read across the page spread a la "Un coup de des" by Mallarme, an idea which, like many others I toyed with, did not hold up under the slightest test. But still the Mallarme is there. There is a quotation opened toward the very beginning of the text that is only closed at the very end of it. Basically every device of formatting, punctuation, and grammar is rhetorically employed here to create a text that, similar to Collobert's It Then (which came out after this, potentially inspired by it (edit: no clear biographical connection (edit: Albiach is literally included as the epigraph to It Then))), tells both a love story and a story about creation and language. I wanna call it a masterpiece, but I'll see if I can get some answers to these questions I have first.

Addendum: It is a very good translation considering the difficulty of the material even to interpret in the first place. A straight translation of the text would yield much worse results than he gives. Minor inconveniences, but ones that tell you it's coming from the real deal.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alarming density in such white space. Albiach's poetry is penetrating, vibrant, shaking my very foundations, opening me up to some other something I cannot quite perceive. Her page use is delicate, seemingly minimal in its visual genstures until, upon closer examination, one realizes the fine attention to the smallest detail can make a mountain tremble and fall. A must.

[Felix Nylén · Rating 5 out of 5]

på svenska ur fem kören, den sitter hårt, väcker många känslor

[Maj. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another selection befitting the Kay Sage level. (Sorry, not sorry.)

The translation is good though. The content not very much so.

[vuelociego · Rating 3 out of 5]

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