Hitting the Streets - Softcover

Queneau, Raymond

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1847771572 ISBN 13: 9781847771575

Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd., 2013

Synopsis

Taxi drivers, street sweepers, a bouquiniste, unsuccessful prostitutes, a menaced bicycle rider, noisy children, an old woman shunted aside in a crowd, and some disgruntled animals at the zoo populate these poems. Unreeling like a series of clips recorded during a stroll through Paris, the book is wickedly funny, but it is also a bittersweet meditation on how "the river of forgetfulness carries away the city." This is the poet's love letter to Paris—a Paris that is always in the process of becoming superannuated. Rachel Galvin’s lively, idiomatic version is the first complete translation available in English.

About this title

About the Author

Raymond Queneau was a novelist, philosopher, poet, mathematician, and translator, and a leading figure in 20th-century French literary life. He cofounded OuLiPo, a group of experimental writers and mathematicians whose members included Italo Calvino and Georges Perec, in 1960, and it is the longest running literary group in French history. Rachel Galvin is a poet, translator, editor, and academic who teaches comparative literature at Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of a collection of poems, Pulleys & Locomotion. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Review

'Galvin's electrifying translation forms an exemplary point of departure for the rediscovery of Queneau's poetry.' --David Wheatley, Poetry Review 'I promise you'll love this. Especially if you love Paris.' --Nicholas Lezard, Guardian Paperback of the Week 'Rachel Galvin has met the challenge of Queneau's difficult language with extraordinary aplomb and agility, finding equivalents for the poet's elaborate puns, rhymes, double entendres, and neologisms, even as she keeps intact the colloquial suppleness and playful street slang of Queneau's poetry. Hitting the Streets is an enchanting book, guaranteed to make you smile in recognition.' --Marjorie Perloff 'This book changed Parisians' view of their city and fertilised French poetry as few others have. A book of daydreaming and flanerie, it's absolutely worth hitting the poems' pavement, getting the lay of its loopy land, and sailing away.' --Paul Fournel 'Galvin has caught the verve of the language while also retaining its sound-play - a remarkable achievement - resulting in a stunning book that brings both Paris and the cultural power of language into vivid focus.' --Cole Swensen

Edition details

• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd.
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1847771572
• ISBN 13: 9781847771575
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 128