Paul Valéry’s most celebrated collection Charmes was first published in 1922. It contains several of his most famous poems, including ‘Ébauche d’un serpent’ and ‘Le cimetière marin’ – in Yvor Winters’ view ‘the two greatest short poems ever written.’ The collection as a whole has achieved classic status as the finest work by the finest modern French poet. Here it is helpfully introduced and discussed by Peter Dale who has also appended some early poems, and one much later piece, of related interest.

Peter Dale has been working on his translations of Valéry for some thirty years. As ever, he takes the hardest – and for the reader, most rewarding – route in making versions with corresponding rhyme and metre. The result is a fresh view of an intriguing poet, somewhat neglected but now revived in English.