French Women Poets of Nine Centuries

Unprecedented in scope and depth, this tour de force collection of works by French-speaking women poets contains over 600 poems from 54 different pens, from the twelfth century Marie de France through Albertine Sarrazin, who died in 1967. Through artful, careful translations that remain true to the authors' voices, style, and artistic integrity, Norman R. Shapiro provides a very particular window into the development and evolution of French poetry from the Middle Ages and well into the modern era. Original texts and translations are presented on facing pages, allowing readers to appreciate the vigor and contextual variety of the French and the fidelity of the English versions. Divided into three discrete chronological sections -- the Middle Ages and sixteenth century, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the nineteenth and twentieth centuries -- the volume includes introductory essays by noted scholars of each era's poetry along with biographical and bibliographical sketches of each poet's place in her period. This bilingual panorama is an essential addition to the libraries of all scholars and readers of poetry, French, literature, and -- especially -- women's writing. It will also interest students of the art and craft of literary translation.