Mallarmé

translator and poet, poet and translator

Abstract

Stéphane Mallarmé, the translator, is born almost at the same time as the poet. He learns English especially to read and translate Edgar Allan Poe, initially discovered through the translations of Charles Baudelaire. His relation with the English language will become something of importance in his life, determining even his career as an English teacher, and though he also translated some other poets, it is to Poe’s works that he will consecrate his major efforts. His translation of The Raven, with illustrations by Manet, was a milestone in the tradition of illustrated books, and was made rather early in his life: in 1875. Mallarmé left us three versions of this translation and they allow us to see a certain path surrounding his own understanding of the poem, and also his poetic choices. From the first attempts at translation, more strictly formal and literal, to the flowing poetic prose of the final version, the translation strategies chosen by the author reveal, as if he was a Beckett avant la lettre, a direct connection between his reflection about, and his conception of poetry, highlighting a path to maturity and the search for specific effects, the beginnings of his interest for the English language as well as the all-important influences of Baudelaire and Poe in his work.