Gentle Genius of Cécile Périn by Cecile Perin and translated by Norman Shapiro

This is poetry from France.

Gentle Genius of Cécile Périn by Cecile Perin translated by Norman Shapiro is published by Black Widow Press. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2016.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780997172553E12.

Gentle Genius of Cécile Périn, translated by Norman Shapiro, presents the French poet through a title that sounds affectionate, archival, and slightly old-fashioned in the best way. Périn’s work enters English as part of the larger work of recovering and sustaining poets who might otherwise remain outside the usual Anglophone map. Shapiro’s translations often attend to form, rhyme, and the musical shape of French verse, which matters for a poet whose “gentle genius” may depend on tonal nuance rather than overt spectacle. I would read this volume for the quieter pleasures of lyric craft: grace, delicacy, feeling disciplined by form. Not every important book arrives with thunder. Some arrive by restoring a voice to audibility.

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.