Selected Poems

Rating:
Summary: Excellently translated introduction to unclassifiable master
Review: Francis Ponge may not yet be a household name, but his famous admirers include the likes of Sartre, Robbe-Grillet and Calvino. It was the latter who introduced me to the poet, whose work is generally classified as being concerned with language, and with things (his most famous collection is called 'Siding with things'), including pebbles, crabs and cigarettes.

Ponge composed mostly in prose poems, and with his direct, precise language, he should be the easiest of foreign poets to translate. He is, however, one of the most difficult, because his 'direct' and 'precise' vocabulary is anything but - like Joyce, Ponge scrapes the banalities from words, and forces us to reconsider the exact meanings of them, their etymologies and implications. This can transform or complicate the poems' meaning completely, but as French words have a different versatility to English ones, the linguistic subtlety isn't always apparent in translation.

this makes the achievement of the three translaters here, all poets, the more admirable, as they catch much of Ponge's rhythmic, tonal and playful art. The poems themselves are marvels of revelation, recreating everyday objects like they never before existed, as the poet journeys through language into their usually ignored essence. You emerge determined to be more observant in future, to be more receptive to life.

Rating:
Summary: Great selection, great translation
Review: It's a shame that Francis Ponge is not more widely read in America. It's an even bigger shame that so much of his work is left untranslated for the American reader.The two slim volumes translated by Lee Fahnstock, Nature of Things and Vegetation, are fine translations of his earliest work, and the 1998 Lane Dunlop translation of Soap should also be considered must-read books. But this selected poems is a much better introduction to Francis Ponge.The book presents Ponge's prosepoems in both English and the original French in facing-pages translation. The translations are excellent, and the selection from Ponge's entire catalogue represents the vast diversity of style and length, while constantly including only the most remarkable poems. Unless you read French and can track down Ponge's complete works in the original language, and until his work is translated completely, Guiton's edition is the best one could hope for.

Rating:
Summary: Major Screw-up
Review: Why are the first three reviews on "Francis Ponge - Selected Poems not about Francis Ponge poems in this book, but rather about William Carlos Williams and C.K. Williams poetry? I mean, these men are good poets but let's review the right book guys.