Women/Men

Femmes/Hombres

Verlaine Paul

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) wrote three secret collections of verse, of which "Femmes and Hombres" remained almost unobtainable even in France until the 1970s. These strangely unrespectable poems celebrate the pleasures of sex, with women and men respectively, in loving detail – reversing the old view of Verlaine as a limp impressionist. Alistair Elliot's metrical translations brilliantly echo the vigour, good humour and skill of the originals, which accompany them in this bilingual edition.

About the Author

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896) was a leading Symbolist poet. He was born in Metz and educated in Paris. He met Rimbaud in 1871; two years later he was imprisoned at Mons as a result of the incident in which he fired a gun at Rimbaud. In prison he converted to Catholicism. After his release Verlaine worked for a few years as a teacher in England, returning to France in 1877. His remaining years were unhappily marred by destitution.

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