Introduction
The poem is what has neither name, nor rest, nor place, nor dwelling: a fissure mov-
ing towards the work. jacques garelli, ‘‘Excess of Poetry’’T
his anthology responds to the often expressed need for a
large-scale bilingual representation of twentieth-century
French-language poetry as a whole. In the tumult of our
time, poetry o√ers itself as a borderless country in which we can all reside,
at least temporarily. It is in this belief that I have undertaken this massive
volume. For the first time, as inhabitants of a brand-new century, we can
look back at the twentieth century. Our evaluation, of course, will change
with our reading as the years go on. Nothing is presumed about the
lasting nature of any attempt to gather what seems important at the
moment, except the goodwill of this team of translators and advisers,
every one of whom has my deep gratitude.
Many of the translations in this volume have been previously pub-
lished—some appeared in books, some in journals—and many others
have been commissioned specifically for this book. The choice of transla-
tors was crucial; I often consulted them about which writers—and then
which poems—should be presented. I also listened, gratefully, to the
counsel of Francophone and Anglophone friends. But finally, of course,
as editor, I had to make my own choices, as intuitive as they were reasoned
and often di≈cult, of both poets and poems.
The bilingual presentation notwithstanding, I have tried to keep in
mind the perspective of the non-French-speaking reader. Writing of the
decision by the New York Review of Books not to retain him as a reviewer,
the art historian Michael Fried described his way of being and seeing.
Here he might well be speaking of my involvement with this volume.
Fried was recognized, he says, as ‘‘someone whose primary commitment