Complete Poems. A Bilingual Edition

"Those who wish to read this exquisite writer but do not trust their French now have an edition with extraordinarily helpful notes, subtle translations, and an erudite but accessible introduction. I will certainly assign it the next time I teach my course on Renaissance women writers. How can one not love a poet who explains why boars have cloven feet, who imagines Cupid shooting arrows tipped with Greek fire while giving a cheery 'Good day!' in his native Greek, and who mixes discourses from Petrarch, Plato, and the early French Renaissance into a witty dialogue that always charms and often moves?" ~Anne Lake Prescott, Barnard College and Columbia University

 "This new bilingual edition of Du Guillet's poems includes a richly detailed and up-to-date introduction and a translation that follows the original rhymes—a daunting undertaking often performed with dazzling accuracy, humor and verve. This will be the English edition of the Rymes for a long time to come."

  ~Ann Rosalind Jones, Smith College

"Here Marta Finch brings the musical rhymes and meters of the French originals to her deft translations of Pernette du Guillet's complete poetic work. The gracious verse, sometimes amusing, sometimes wrenching, will make evident to an English-speaking audience the intelligence, sensitivity, and technical skills of the sadly short-lived sixteenth-century poet. In her fourth epigram, praising the knowledge and goodness of another poet, Du Guillet writes, 'Your sweet pen gently pouring forth the while / Deserves all of the praise and glory gained / From riches seen to stream in noble style.' Riches stream in noble style in this book's English versions of a remarkable young woman's poetry." ~Thomas Carper, Recipient of The Richard Wilbur Award for Distant Blue; co-author of Meter and Meaning