"A Critical Biography of Rimbaud" Author: [France] Yves Bonnefoy Publisher: Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press Translator: Du Qing

- Editor's Recommendation -

★Yves Bonnefoy, a world-class poet of great significance in contemporary France and the author of "Another Language in Voices", wrote this moving work, a model work written by a poet about a poet. It is not only a biography of Rimbaud with original insights and unique style, but also a spiritual phenomenology of Rimbaud.

★Yves Bonnefoy: "I owe a lot of my achievements to Rimbaud. Few people have had such a fundamental influence on me as he did. Only he told me what life is, what life expects of me, and how to change life."

★The starting point of Rimbaud’s poetics is realism. His concern for the Paris Commune, his advocacy of “objective poetics”, and his enthusiasm for transcending individual language to enter universality all show his willingness to transform social reality, to reshape the relationship between people with “new love”, and to rebuild the connection between words and the world.

★ Rimbaud's moving point lies in his distressed consciousness of constantly questioning "what is a poet for", his continuous exploration of the impossibility at the core of the possibility of existence, and his persistence and vitality after several failures. Bonnefoy called poetry a movement of hope, just like Sisyphus pushing a stone, the poet must expect and start infinitely. They are all Sisyphus poets.

★ Rimbaud, a tragic hero who repeatedly fought and failed in contradictions. Only a sincere person can fight again and again like Sisyphus, bravely face the impossibility at the core of poetry, and build all possibilities on this impossibility. We need Rimbaud, because in his poems, we can feel the true desire of a finite person for love.

- Introduction -

This book is not only a biography of Rimbaud with unique insights and style, but also a spiritual phenomenology of Rimbaud. The book is divided into eight chapters, which carefully analyze Rimbaud's career as a poet and deeply present the trajectory of Rimbaud's spiritual activities. It is supplemented by three appendices with extended explanations, concise and clear biographical clues, rich and detailed references, and wonderful post-translation notes, as well as a large number of photos, paintings and manuscript illustrations.

As the author Yves Bonnefoy suggests at the beginning, "In order to understand Rimbaud, let us read Rimbaud - separate his voice from the many mixed voices. There is no need to go far or look elsewhere to find what Rimbaud said to us in person. Few writers are as enthusiastic as he is about knowing and defining themselves - wanting to change themselves and become another person through knowing themselves. Therefore, let us take this most serious pursuit seriously. I suggest that we go back to find a voice - to see through its will, to reproduce its tone, especially these agitations, this inimitable purity, these victories, these brokennesses."

Without this book, which is so accurate and outstanding in its depiction of Rimbaud's spirit, our reading of Rimbaud would be greatly diminished.

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