Rhapsodies by Petrus Borel, trans. by John Gallas and Kurt Ganz Geraldine Clarkson April is the Cruellest Month

April is the Cruellest Month

Although he often railed against the defenders of Slovene [traditional poetic] beauty and the tyranny of metaphor

tenderness and rage

It is a daring and distinguished work from one of Ireland’s leading poets

we should be glad of this voice’ – Kate Clanchy

Rhapsodies by Petrus Borel, trans. by John Gallas and Kurt Ganz Geraldine Clarkson April is the Cruellest MonthBorel was the sun,' said Theophile Gautier, 'who could resist him?' Indeed, who? A lycanthrope, necrophile, absurd revolutionary, Paris dandy with a scented beard, flamboyant sufferer: a man with no grave and no memorial. His once celebrated red mouth opened briefly 'like an exotic flower' to complain of injustice and bourgeois vulgarity; of his frustration in love and reputation; of poverty and blighted fate. Then he withered in the minor officialdom