Selected Lyrics

“Following Gautier’s instructions in his famous poem, ‘Art,’ Norman Shapiro has sculpted, chiseled, and filed these ingenious translations in the resistant stone of the English language. One of the key poets of the French nineteenth century, revered by Baudelaire and T.S. Eliot, Gautier can now initiate a new generation of readers in English into the mysteries of the poetic art.”—Rosanna Warren, Boston University

~Rosanna Warren

“Gautier’s distinctively graceful and elegant poetry is overdue for discovery by English-speaking readers.  This virtuosic collection does both justice to his verse and a great service to those unable to appreciate it fully in the original French.”—Alain Toumayan, University of Notre Dame ~Alain Toumayan

"A key work in the French lyric canon. . . . We are indebted to Norman Shapiro, who is nothing less than the dean of contemporary American translators engaged with French poetry. . . . [His] scholarship is impeccable, his mastery of all facets of the original text is complete, accurate, and precise, and his application of English poetics is not only exemplary in every respect, but above all, vital and vivifying.”—David Lee Rubin, University of Virginia

~David Lee Rubin