The Invention of Glass by Emmanuel Hocquard and translated by Cole Swensen

This is poetry from France.

The Invention of Glass by Emmanuel Hocquard translated by Cole Swensen is published by Canarium Books. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2012.0 and has the ISBN of 9.780982237694E12.

The Invention of Glass, by Emmanuel Hocquard and translated by Cole Swensen, has one of those titles that immediately makes perception feel historical. Glass seems ordinary until one remembers that transparency had to be invented, shaped, polished, and trusted. Hocquard’s poetry often investigates how language frames what can be seen, said, or known, and Swensen’s translation is well matched to that delicacy of thought. I would read this book as a meditation on surfaces and thresholds: window, lens, pane, page. Glass lets us see through it, but it also separates, reflects, breaks, and cuts. The title suggests a poetry of clarity that understands clarity itself as made, fragile, and never innocent.

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.