Sleep Preceded by Saying Poetry by Jacques Roubaud and translated by Cole Swensen, Matthew B. Smith

This is poetry from France.

Sleep Preceded by Saying Poetry by Jacques Roubaud translated by Cole Swensen, Matthew B. Smith is published by Fence Magazine, Incorporated. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2020.0 and has the ISBN of 9.78194438009E12.

In Sleep Preceded by Saying Poetry, Jacques Roubaud arrives in English through Cole Swensen, Matthew B. Smith’s translation from French, with a lyric field shaped by sleep, ritual, formal intelligence, and memory. The metadata gives the reader a doorway, but the book should not be reduced to a country-language-press summary. I would read it for atmosphere and attention first: what kind of silence it makes, what kind of body it imagines, what kind of world becomes visible when the poem turns its head. The strongest value of this entry is that it gives readers permission to approach difficulty as texture rather than a locked door. Sleep Preceded by Saying Poetry belongs in the library as a book of encounter, not simply information.

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.