SOURCE: "Twentieth Century Stepchild," in American Book Review, Vol. 7, July, 1985, p. 3.

In the following review, Arnold praises the translation The Collected Poems of Aimé Césaire and discusses Césaire's perceived lack of national identity.

Aimé Césaire was heralded by the Times Literary Supplement in 1982 as one of the three most important poets of the twentieth century, alongside Artaud and Pasolini. This brilliant translation of his Collected Poetry (1939–1976) by Clayton Eshleman and Annette Smith, handsomely illustrated with line drawings by Césaire's friend, the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam, will allow readers to reach their own conclusions. At all events, an important new territory has been added to the poetic geography of our time by the availability in one volume of all but the most recent collection (Moi, laminaire, 1983) of the greatest living poet in the French language.

Césaire is a black Martinican who has been a...