Hello.

Is there anybody amongst the members of this forum who is capable to evaluate the quality of Mr. Smith‘s translation of Charles Baudelaire‘s writing? I would like to know how capable C.A. Smith was in the capacity of a translator of poetry.

Smith disdained certain translations of Baudelaire. His ability to improve upon them is unquestionable. Interestingly, he converted some of the poems into prose. Baudelaire's prose poems may have inspired these experiments. On the whole, however, I prefer Joanna Richardson's translations of Baudelaire in a Penguin 1975 edition. I also have an old edition of Les Fleur du Mal, translations by Conder, which I don't like at all by comparison with CAS.

jkh

I'm not sure I have enough poetry appreciation to participate in this discussion. But if you want to suggest a particular poem to consider, I might venture to give it, and some alternate translations, a peak. I can read French a little as well, so I can also look at the original.

I just browsed through CAS's Baudelaire translations on this site. There seem to be about 33 of them.

Prosaic philistine that I am, I got little out of them.

A few random thoughts did strike me. Baudelaire seems a bit more religious than CAS, which is not saying much. Baudelaire seems a bit preoccupied with some connection between debauchery and death. "The Metamorphoses of the Vampire" suggests the familiar vampire theme that the erotic appeal of a vampire is illusory.