Rare - THE FIRST COMPLETE TRANSLATION OF A BYRON POEM INTO FRENCH. OCLC records British Library, Cambridge; New York Public Library and BnF only. NO COPIES RECORDED IN RARE BOOK HUB. First published in London in 1813 as The Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale.
A very fine copy of the first complete poetical work by Byron to be translated into French. This remarkable prose translation was undertaken by Léon Thiessé in order to introduce French readers to “les chefs-d’oeuvre dont nos voisins s’enorgueillissent avec raison.” In the detailed translators notes at the end of the volume Thiessé translates into French and re-prints in English Byron’s Fare Thee Well (Adieu à Toi!), his infamous poem on the dissolution of his marriage to Annabella Milbanke which had been privately printed in London in in the same year.
This is not only a rare translation of two important works by Byron but a vital piece of evidence for the reception of Byron in Europe, the fashioning of the Byronic cult of celebrity and, more generally, a key statement on the relationship between English and French literary tastes in the period.
The Bride of Abydos was the foundational work that “defined and perfected the Byronic hero…usually an aristocrat—embodied a culturally alienated anti-hero, bearing within a dark secret that seemed as threatening to others as to himself.” (ODNB). The success of this poem and his other “oriental” tales made Byron an unprecedented literary celebrity across Europe. A few excerpts from Byron’s poetry had already been translated into French but Zuleika et Sélim is the first complete poem to be translated and, furthermore, the translator states that his aim in undertaking the translation was to bridge the gap between English literature and French readers. He writes in his preface before the text:
“Les littératures étrangères sont généralement trop peu étudiées en France. La conscience de nos richesses littéraires nous inspire des dédains pour le chefs-doeuvre dont nos voisins s’enorgueillissent avec raison; et ce sentiment nous rend souvent injustes, parce que, au défaut d’ignorer ou de connaître trop superficiellement, nous joigons celui de vouloir tout juger. Cet éloignement pour les languages étrangères, cette ardeur de dénigrer ce que nous n’entendons pas, ont souvent fourni aux peuples rivaux des argumens victorieux pour justifier le reproche delégèreté adressé, de tout temps, à la nation française.” (i-ii)
[Foreign literatures are generally too little studied in France. Our awareness of our own literary riches often leads us to look with disdain upon the masterpieces in which our neighbours rightly take pride; this attitude frequently renders us unfair, for, in addition to being ignorant of—or only superficially acquainted with—such works, we also insist on sitting in judgment of everything. This aversion to foreign languages, combined with an eagerness to disparage what we do not understand, has often provided rival nations with compelling arguments to justify the charge of frivolity—a reproach that has, throughout history, been levelled against the French people.]
Thiessé states in his preface that he has therefore chosen to translate a poem by Byron “le poëte le plus distingué de l’Angleterre” as a lasting tribute to the power of English literature.
In the extensive notes at the end of the volume, Thiessé writes:
“Ce poëme semble aux lecteurs français d’une physionomie tout-à-fait étrangère. Outre la couleur locale et l’aspértié des moeurs de ses héros, l’exécution tient à la fois des écoles anglaise et allemande. Le style est très-obscuret, si ce n’est pas un défault chez nos voisins, c’est en France un vice sussisant pour faire rejeter l’ouvrage le mieux pensé. On m’a dit, et je ne pluis le croire, qu’il était beaucoup d’Anglais pour lesquels les écrits de lord Byron sont presque inintelligibles à la première lecture. Certes, ce serait chez nous un défaut intolérable.” (p.103)
[To French readers, this poem appears to have a character that is entirely foreign. Beyond its local colour and the harshness of its protagonists’ customs, its execution draws from both English and German traditions. The style is highly obscure; while this might not be considered a flaw among our neighbours, in France it is a defect significant enough to cause even the most well-conceived work to be rejected. I have been told—and I find it quite believable—that there are many Englishmen for whom Lord Byron’s writings are nearly unintelligible upon a first reading. In our country, such a trait would certainly be an intolerable flaw.]
Remarkably, Thiessé then goes on to discuss Byron’s “chagrins domestiques” which he notes are well known and discussed in a recent poem, Adieu à Toi!, which he notes: “Cette élégie, publiée très-récemment, mérite de trouver ici sa place, et nous ne doutons pas que le lecteur ne nous sache gré de la lui avoir fait connaître” (p.107-8) The whole of Fare Thee Well is then reproduced in both English and in a French translation. Fare Thee Well was privately published in London for John Murray in late March or early April 1816 in 50 copies only and was also published in The Champion on 14th April. This French edition was therefore published less than six months after the poem first appeared in print in London. The last copy of the first edition of Fare Thee Well to appear at auction sold for $12,500 at Sotheby’s ten years ago.
It is even more remarkable that in the 2004 large-scale, two volume assessment, The Reception of Byron in Europe, this translation received only two sentences of discussion noting simply that it was the first complete poem to be translated and that that the translator was “a classicist by temperament” (edited by Richard A. Cardwell, Vol I p.39). In a wider assessment of Byron’s influence, the book states, “The impact of Byron on the major French Romantic writers is too large a topic…”.
It is presumably due to the fact that this French translation of the The Bride of Abydos is so scarce that scholars have been unable to properly study it and properly examine both the literary and reputational influence of Byron on French readers at the beginning of the 19th-century.
