University of Exeter Press Translating Baudelaire (Literary Criticism)

This book is the record of an apprenticeship in translating Baudelaire, and in translating poetry more generally. Re-assessing the translator's task and art, Clive Scott explores various theoretical approaches as he goes in search of his own style of translation. In the course of the book, versions of seventeen of Baudelaire's poems are offered, with detailed evaluations of the poems and the translations. Translating Baudelaire considers two neglected questions: What form should the criticism of translation take, if the critic is to do justice to the translator's 'project'? How can a translator persuade readers to respond to a translation as a text with its own creative dynamic and expressive ambitions?