Landscapist: Selected Poems

Description

The French poet Pierre Martory is here published comprehensively for the first time in Britain. His formative impact on John Ashbery, and through Ashbery on a host of English-language poets, is considerable. “The Landscapist” provides a bilingual selection of the poems in Ashbery’s luminous translations. ‘After I began translating Pierre Martory,’ writes Ashbery, ‘that is, after I began to realize that his marvelous poetry would likely remain unknown unless I translated it and brought it to the attention of readers, I have begun to find echoes of his work in mine. His dreams, his pessimistic resumes of childhood that are suddenly lanced by a joke, his surreal loves, his strangely lit landscapes with their inquisitive birds and disquieting flora, have been fertile influences for me.’ Some poems here are previously unpublished, the brilliant inedits vivid and memorable. An introductory biographical essay by Ashbery and bibliographies complete this book.