Poetry isn't everyone's cup of tea, granted...
I have recently
begun (over the past few years) to translate poetry from French to
English, with an attempt at preserving the elements of rhyme and meter,
where possible, of the original text. I am only an amateur, and I do it
strictly for the purpose of exposing poetry that would otherwise waste
away in obscurity (which it truly does not deserve, in my opinion, for
whatever that's worth). As an exercise, it is like solving a puzzle,
and gaining a treasure for your efforts: if you've preserved some of
the 'music' of the original after the transformation has been
completed. I welcome any and all criticisms (positive, negative,
indifferent, or 'other'...). You can Wiki these authors (at least on
the French Wiki site) if you desire to know more. For those of you who
bought (back in '80's) the French Pressings of the first 4 Christian
Death albums (on the superb 'Invitation au Suicide' label), you'll
recall the finely-printed booklets of Decadent art and poetry that
accompanied each album. Gilkin, Gourmont, Verhaeren and all the rest of
the Cursed Poets were well represented in the booklets. This is, in
part, my inspiration for doing this. Thank you for helping keep these
poems alive.