Bücher der Reihe Arc Classic Translations

A genuinely unique European treasure, this volume bristles with the Viking verses of Rognvaldr, Earl of Orkney, recorded in Orkneyinga Saga. Full of highly stylised, often grotesque images, Ian Crockatt's masterly translations convey the skill, vigour and daring of the original. Skaldic poetry is one of the most elaborate and original in European literature and this collection finally brings it to the deserved attention of the Englishlanguage reader. Rich narratives and old Norse mythology blend with familiar placenames and landscapes to create a peculiarly alluring, sometimes comic, world that never quite settles around the reader. Spirited and generous, these poems give us precious glimpses of a life lived to the full.

Jan Owen's masterly translation captures all of Baudelaire's passion and anguish in a selection that includes many of Baudelaire's best known poems - including those banned from 1857 edition - as well as some less familiar ones, with the volume leading up to his great long poem, 'The Voyage', and finishing with the much-loved sonnet 'Meditation'.

Bruges was Rodenbach's muse and poetic source, the landscape in which he attempted to reveal the significance of what appeared lifeless or unconnected to art. Using the symbolist devices of suggestion and mood, Rodenbach sifts the elements that make up the decaying Bruges which he sees as a medieval corpse laid out for him to 'rescue'.

A beautiful, lyrical journey through the passions and fears of pre-Medieval German life, told by some of its finest poetic voices.

This extensive and wide-ranging selection comprises the poetry of one of France's most exciting writers of the twentieth century, the surrealist Robert Desnos. Hailed as the 'prophet' of the Surrealist movement by Andre Breton, Desnos was a hugely influential figure across all art forms at the time.