"Finch’s translations are indeed beautifully crafted and dynamic. . . [she] captures thoroughly the sensual passion and the startling modernity of the poems."
—From the review by Leah Chang in H-France
Louise Labé, Complete Poetry and Prose: A Bilingual Edition. Poetry translations by Annie Finch. Edited and with prose translations by Deborah Lesko Baker.
Louise Labé (c. 1520-66) was an important literary figure in the Renaissance world of Lyons, France, and earned the nickname "La Sappho Lyonnaise" as well as "The Tenth Muse." Her book of poems included 24 sonnets subverting the Petrarchan tradition from a female point of view and three long satirical elegies about love. She is also known for many colorful legends about her life, her illustrious love affairs, and her skill at jousting.
Thanks to her acclaimed volume of poetry and prose published in France in 1555, Labé remains one of the most important and influential women writers of the Continental Renaissance. Best known for her exquisite collection of love sonnets, Labé played off the Petrarchan male tradition with wit and irony, and her elegies respond with lyric skill to predecessors such as Sappho and Ovid. The first complete bilingual edition of this singular and broad-ranging female author, Complete Poetry and Prose also features the only translations of Labé's sonnets to follow the exacting rhyme patterns of the originals and the first rhymed translation of Labé's elegies in their entirety.
SONNET 3 by Louise Labé
Long-felt desires, hopes as long as vain—
sad sighs—slow tears accustomed to run sad
into as many rivers as two eyes can add,
pouring like fountains, endless as the rain—
cruelty beyond humanity, a pain
so hard it makes compassionate stars go mad
with pity: these are the first passions I’ve had.
Do you think love could root in my soul again?
If it arched the great bow back again at me,
licked me again with fire, and stabbed me deep
with the violent worst, as awful as before,
the wounds that cut me everywhere would keep
me shielded, so there would be no place free
for love. It covers me. It will pierce no more.
[First published in the Norton Anthology of World Poetry, 2000]
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More Poems by Labé
Copyright ©2000 by Annie Finch