Neila, Evening Song

Book excerpt: Yvan Goll (1891-1950), a poet of many talents and many languages, his journal Surrealism (1924) was the first to feature surrealist work much to the chagrin of Andre Breton. A Jewish intellectual living in NYC during World War II, much of his French language poetry, including "Landless John," was translated into English by various hands including William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin and Galway Kinnell. He was the first to translate Aime Cesaire's "Notebook" into English. Near his death, he wrote a large number of love poems addressed to his wife Claire. Some were published as "Dream Weed / Traumkraut," Goll's work best known to English readers, others are to be found in "Neila," a work of restless paranoia and gripping intensity, translated here into English for the first time."