Modern Poetry in Translation

Timothy Adès

Translator, Reviewer

Timothy Adès, born 1941, has degrees in classics and international business. He translates poems into English, mainly from French, German and Spanish, also from Greek. He works mostly with rhyme and metre. Lipograms are a sideline.

His three books to date are:
• Victor Hugo, [poems from] How to be a Grandfather, Hearing Eye 2002; a complete edition will follow;
• Jean Cassou, 33 Sonnets of the Resistance (composed and memorised in a Vichy prison), Arc   Publications 2002;
• Cassou, The Madness of Amadis, Agenda Editions 2008.

Other favourites are Brecht, and the Mexican, Alfonso Reyes; Sikelianós, Nerval, Louise Labé, Ricarda Huch, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Hans/Jean Arp; and most of all, Robert Desnos, 1900–45, the most exciting French poet of the last century. A large selection of Desnos is due. Timothy’s awards include the John Dryden Prize and the TLS Premio Valle–Inclán Prize.