Selected Poems of René Char

March 15, 1992
This is a fine, bilingual edition of the works of one of the great French surrealists. An early recruit (with Breton, Crevel, and Aragon) to the cause of "la revolution surrealiste," Char outlived all his colleagues and, faithful to his original inspiration, kept producing until his death in 1988. There is both great integrity and great brilliance in Char's work. He never settles for the merely overwhelming image but finds the precise and perfect one. Death he defines as "the riddle / that you, too, will become / in the bitter caprice of the sands" and lovers' expectations in this image: "Far away a bed lies patient and trembling in the exile of its fragrant covers, / like a mountain lake that will never be abandoned." The translations, by several hands, serve Char well--full of insinuating rhythms and unusual verbal couplings, they come close to the piercing beauty of the originals. ((Reviewed Mar. 15, 1992))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1992, American Library Association.)