Dice Cup by Max Jacob and translated by Ian Seed

This is poetry from France.

Dice Cup by Max Jacob translated by Ian Seed is published by Wakefield Press. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2022.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781939663863E12.

Dice Cup, by Max Jacob and translated by Ian Seed, brings a classic French modernist work into English through Wakefield’s devotion to strange and necessary books. Jacob’s writing sits near Cubism, prose poetry, Catholic conversion, wit, mysticism, and avant-garde social play. The dice cup is a perfect image for his art: chance shaken inside a small container, order and randomness colliding before the throw. I would read this book for its quick turns, its theatrical intelligence, and its refusal to separate spiritual seriousness from comic instability. Seed’s translation gives English readers a chance to encounter Jacob’s prose-poem energy without smoothing away the odd angles. This is modernism with pockets full of dice.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.