Elegies by Emmanuel Hocquard and translated by Cole Swensen

This is poetry from France.

Elegies by Emmanuel Hocquard translated by Cole Swensen is published by New York Review of Books. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2026.0 and has the ISBN of 9.78168137992E12.

Elegies, by Emmanuel Hocquard and translated by Cole Swensen, brings together two names strongly associated with precision, experimentation, and the intelligence of restraint. An elegy traditionally mourns, but Hocquard is not likely to hand grief over in expected ceremonial form. His work often asks how statement, perception, and absence can be arranged without false lyric inflation. Swensen’s translation is especially promising for that kind of difficulty, since her own poetics understands how white space, syntax, and thought can carry feeling indirectly. I would read Elegies for a grief that may be architectural rather than expressive, a mourning built out of fragments, distances, and the refusal to say too much.

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.