Willard Bohn is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature at Illinois State University, USA. He is the author or editor of sixteen books, including The Avant-Garde Imperative (2013); Marvelous Encounters: Surrealist Responses to Film, Art, Poetry and Architecture (2005), Italian Futurist Poetry (2005), The Dada Market: An Anthology of Poetry (1993), and The Aesthetics of Visual Poetry, 1914-1928 (1993). He has also published 130 articles in journals such as Romantic Review, Comparative Literature, French Studies, Comparative Literature Studies, The Art Bulletin, MLN, Hispanic Review, the Revue deLittérature Comparée, and Comparative Critical Studies.

A bilingual anthology of Surrealist poetry translated from French and Spanish.

IntroductionRafael AlbertiVicente AleixandreLouis AragonBraulio ArenasAntonin ArtaudAndré BretonAndré Breton, René Char, and Paul EluardLuis CernudaAimé CésaireRené CharMalcolm de ChazalRobert DesnosPaul EluardJ. V. FoixFederico García LorcaJosé María HinojosaMarianne van HirtumMiguel LabordetaE.L.T. MesensCésar MoroPablo NerudaOctavio PazBenjamin PéretPhilippe SoupaultSelected BibliographyAcknowledgments

Surrealist Poetry presents new English translations of nearly 150 poems alongside their original French and Spanish versions.Founded by André Breton in 1924, Surrealism sought to examine the unconscious realm by means of the written or spoken word. Seeking to expand the ability of language to evoke irrational states and improbable events, it consistently strove to transcend the linguistic status quo. By stretching language to its limits and beyond, the Surrealists transformed it into an instrument for exploring the human psyche. The twenty-three poets in this collection come not only from France, where Surrealism was invented, but also from Spain, Belgium, Martinique, Mauritius, Catalonia, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Three of them were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (Vicente Aleixandre, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz). Equipped with a critical introduction and a brief bibliography, this anthology will appeal to anyone interested in modern literature.