Towards the end of his life the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) wrote nearly four hundred poems in French - notably the two collections published as Les Fenêtres (The Windows) and Les Roses. The emergence of a French Rilke provides the starting point rather than the terminus for Jo Shapcott's new collection, Tender Taxes, which re-imagines Rilke's brief and fugitive lyrics as English poems. The occasion is Rilke, but these are more than versions: Shapcott's poems address this, arguing with the originals, crossing and re-crossing the frontier between translation and origination. Rilke and Shapcott are brought together in the shared incognito of a foreign language, 'speaking English through a French mouth'.
| ISBN: | 9780571202522 |
| Publication date: | 8th October 2001 |
| Author: | Jo Shapcott |
| Publisher: | Faber & Faber |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 112 pages |
| Genres: |
Modern and contemporary poetry (c 1900 onwards) Poetry by individual poets |