Poet, translator, and respected critic of both literature and art, Yves Bonnefoy is widely acknowledged as the most significant and influential figure in contemporary French poetry. He has held visiting professorships at Yale, Princeton, Williams, Brandeis, Wesleyan, and the University of California. In 1981 he was elected to the chair previously held by Roland Barthes at the Collège de France in Paris, and since 1993 he has served as Professor of Comparative Poetics. Bonnefoy was awarded the Prix Montaigne in 1978, the Prix Goncourt in 1987, and the Grand Prix Nationale de Poèsie in 1993; in 1992 he was the subject of a comprehensive exhibition of manuscripts, first editions, and pictures at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Since 1953 he has produced six major collections of poetry that are notable for the intensity of their vision and the consistency of their voice, a body of work resembling in these respects the...