The
Bestiary, 30 short
poems celebrating mammals, birds, fish, insects and the mythical poet
Orpheus appeared in 1911 and was Apollinaire’s first published
work. Although they appear slight, the poems inspired the artist
Raoul Dufy to illustrate each of them with a woodcut (5 of the 30
woodcuts are reproduced in the chapbook) and the composer Francis
Poulenc to set six of them to music.
The poems – witty, ironical and full of surprising images – show
Apollinaire’s mastery of short form poetry, and Martin Sorrell’s
superb rhyming translation perfectly preserves the spirit of the
original. Although many individual poems from The
Bestiary have been
published in translation, this chapbook is one of the very few
complete editions to appear, and with an introduction and explanatory
notes by the translator, it is a perfect introduction to
Apollinaire’s poetry.