Openwork by André Du Bouchet and translated by Paul Auster

This is poetry from France.

Openwork by André Du Bouchet translated by Paul Auster is published by Yale University Press. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2014.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780300197631E12.

Openwork, by André du Bouchet and translated by Paul Auster, is a book to read for air, gaps, stone, and the pressure of white space. Du Bouchet’s French poetry is known for its spare intensity, its attention to landscape, and its way of making the page feel like terrain rather than container. Auster’s translation gives English readers access to poems that seem built from openings as much as statements. The title is exactly right: not closed architecture, but a structure with light passing through it. I would read Openwork slowly, allowing the silences to matter. The poem does not always need to fill the page in order to possess it. Sometimes the strongest lyric act is to leave enough space for thought to breathe.

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.