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Title: overdone
Review: I'd get this book for the quality of the paper and type (at least that of the version I bought back in the early 90s) and the great presentation of the French originals. People with even a high-school knowledge of French can appreciate Baudelaire's ideas and musicality. It's impossible to translate the latter into English, so why even try?The best thing about the ideas in the poems is that they are expressed in very simple language. I would have prefered a similarly simple, immediate English translation without resorting to stuffy "poetic" language (as well as over-interpretation--many images sneak into the English that are just not there, or only suggested, in the French). The only way to really appreciate the intricately constructed meter and rhyme is to read the originals.I know this is probably a matter of taste in translation, but reading the English translations in this volume really brings me down sometimes!
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