Three Poems by Henri Meschonnic translated by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes

Henri Meschonnic (1932-2009) is best known worldwide for his translations of the Old Testament and the 710-page Critique du rythme: Anthropologie historique du langage. He published nineteen poetry collections, winning the Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize, and the Guillevic-Ville de Saint-Malo Grand Prize for Poetry. While his critical writing has been translated into English and his poems exist in more than twenty languages, his poems have never appeared in English in book form.

Don Boes lives in Lexington, Kentucky. He teaches at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. His first book, The Eighth Continent, was chosen by A. R. Ammons as the recipient of the 1993 Samuel Morse Poetry Prize and published by Northeastern University Press. His chapbook, Railroad Crossing, was published in 2005 by Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, Kentucky. His book, Good Luck with That, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press.

Gabriella Bedetti has translations of Henri Meschonnic’s essays in New Literary History and Critical Inquiry, an interview in Diacritics, and an article in New Literary History. She and her co-translator are seeking a publisher for The Butterfly Tree: Selected Poems of Henri Meschonnic. Their translations have appeared and are forthcoming in Puerto del Sol, World Literature Today, Rhino, and The Southern Review.

15 January 2025