num_pages: 420
description: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (1901-1937) is generally acknowledged in his own country and abroad as the greatest twentieth-century poet of Madagascar. Many of his poems have been included in anthologies of African poetry. The present volume contains the first complete translation from Malagasy of Rabearivelo's late poetry. Rabearivelo asserted that the poems in these two collections were written originally in Malagasy and then translated by him into French. Until now the published translations into English and other languages of selections from these works were done from the French texts rather than from the Malagasy ones. Included here as well is the first complete translation of the poet's last work Vielles Chansons des Pays d'Imerina (published posthumously in 1939) which consists of French translations and adaptations of a highly refined and metaphorically complex form of Malagasy oral poetry.
language: English
title: Complete Late Poetry of Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
publisher: Edwin Mellen Press