Beginning and End of the Snow followed by Where the Arrow Falls

Emily Grosholz, both poet and philosopher, has accompanied Debut et Fin dela neige with an exquisite English translation, and her great fellow-poet Yves Bonnefoy has prefaced poems and translation with a delectable essay on "Snow" in French and English. -- Richard Wilbur Yves Bonnefoy is without doubt the most important French poet alive today. This series of poems is extraordinarily beautiful, and the translation by Emily Grosholz is excellent. It captures the delicacy and loveliness of the snowflakes, as well as the directness of the arrow. -- Mary Ann Caws This outwardly slight, paperbound volume opens to reveal an uncommon abundance: a series of exquisite poems by one of the most important poets in France today deftly rendered into English by a poet known for her delicate touch; an eloquent essay by Yves Bonnefoy himself, demonstrating his skill as a literary critic as well as a poet; and a charmingly direct meditation by the translator, Emily Grosholz, about her effort to create English equivalents of two Bonnefoy poems. As if that weren't enough, there is the further pleasure of beautiful visual art in the evocative drawings of Iranian artist Farhad Ostovani that accompany the text. World Literature Today