Birds, Beasts and a World Made New: Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov translated by Robert Chandler

“Birds, Beasts and a World Made New” presents poems by Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov in translation by Robert Chandler – two daring modernist voices who reimagined animals, humanity and war with wild creativity. Their verse – vivid, surprising, urgent – invites readers on a journey through love, loss, art and a world remade.

A revelatory volume of two of the twentieth century’s great poetic innovators, Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov, in vibrant new translations by Robert Chandler

Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov never met, but their restless innovations in poetic form shared much in common. Both pushed poetry to its limit, and their experiments proved fertile for generations of poets to come. Khlebnikov became associated with Futurism, though his inventiveness with language moved him far beyond it, while Apollinaire influenced a dizzying array of avant-garde movements, including Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism.

Celebrated translator and poet Robert Chandler offers a stimulating selection from both poets’ work in beautifully vivid new translations. Showcasing these poets’ exhilarating capacity for innovation as well as their more direct, heartfelt verse, Birds, Beasts and a World Made New offers a surprising journey into the world of two great Modernist poets.

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