A Season in Hell & Illuminations
Translated by Bertrand Mathieu
“Seascape”
Machines of silver and copper—
Prows of steel and silver—
Threshing the foam,—
Turning over stumps of bramble.
The currents of the dunes,
The immense ruts of the ebb tide
Flowing circularly toward the East
Toward the pylons of the forest,—
Toward the timbers of the pier
Against whose boards whirlpools of daylight blow!
Praise for A Season in Hell & Illuminations
“With skill and imagination, Bertrand Mathieu gives us an intimacy of the spoken American that allows readers to absorb themselves in Rimbaud’s private drama. As in an obsessive dream of our own, Rimbaud becomes a contemporary of youthful grief, rage, sarcasm and disgust . . . Bertrand Mathieu has earned our gratitude and praise for his accomplishment: to have given us Rimbaud’s relevance today.” —David Ignatow
© BOA Editions, Ltd. 1991
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From "A Season in Hell & Illuminations"
“With skill and imagination, Bertrand Mathieu gives us an intimacy of the spoken American that allows readers to absorb themselves in Rimbaud’s private drama. As in an obsessive dream of our own, Rimbaud becomes a contemporary of youthful grief, rage, sarcasm and disgust . . . Bertrand Mathieu has earned our gratitude and praise for his accomplishment: to have given us Rimbaud’s relevance today.”—David Ignatow
What Critics Are Saying
"Maya Solano has given us a masterclass in restraint and revelation. These poems breathe."
— Poetry Foundation
"A stunning achievement. Solano writes with the precision of a surgeon and the heart of a mystic. This is essential reading."
— The New York Times Book Review
"One of the most remarkable debut collections in recent memory. Solano's voice is singular and unforgettable."
— The Atlantic
"Grief has never been rendered with such grace. A profound and moving collection that will stay with you long after the final page."
— NPR Books
In Conversation: Q&A with Bertrand Mathieu, Arthur Rimbaud
What inspired this collection?
The collection grew out of a personal loss, but it became something larger — an exploration of how we build and rebuild our lives after devastating change. I'm interested in grief not as an endpoint but as a kind of architecture we inhabit.
How did you approach writing about such intimate subject matter?
With great care and a lot of revision. I wanted to honor the emotional truth without indulging in sentimentality. Poetry has to earn its emotion through craft, through precision in language and image. That's what I tried to do here.
What do you hope readers take away from this book?
I hope they find companionship in these poems. Grief can be so isolating, but it's also profoundly universal. If someone reads this book and feels a little less alone, that would mean everything to me.
