Riversong of the Rho Ne (Bilingual)

Publisher Marketing: "One sings here of the soul of a river, and this soul never dies." C. F. Ramuz Nearly seventy years after the death of Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947), it is safe to say that the reputation of Switzerland's legendary poet of the people is secure, at least in French. Since 2005, his 22 novels have appeared in a two-volume Pleiade Edition from Gallimard (Paris) and Editions Slatkine in Geneva has completed 29 volumes of Ramuz's Oeuvres Completes (Complete Works). The author's slightly blurred face has been on the Swiss 200-franc note for years and his Histoire du Soldat (A Soldier's Tale), written in collaboration with Igor Stravinksy in 1918, can easily be found on You Tube. But only recently have English translations of Ramuz's novels begun to appear and until now, his only epic prose poem has not been available in English. Patti M. Marxsen's translation of Ramuz's Chant de Notre Rhone brings this unique work to Anglophone readers as Riversong of the Rhone in a well-crafted bilingual edition that is ideal for students as well as general readers of poetry. Part ode to nature, part assertion of human freedom, part celebration, and entirely pure delight in language made musical, Marxsen's Riversong promises to be as enduring as the river and the landscape it describes. "Riversong of the Rhone is fueled by an entrancing, hymn-like music. Patti Marxsen's agile translation of the poem reveals a musicality within incantatory repetitions and images of a rocking cradle-an aural and visual evocation of a shared birthplace." -Jennifer Kurdyla, Music & Literature "Marxsen has taken the French lyrical prose and transformed it into English lyrical prose." - From the Foreword by Susan M. Tiberghien" Contributor Bio:  Tiberghien, Susan Susan Tiberghien is an American-born writer who holds a BA in Literature and Philosophy and did graduate work at the Universite de Grenoble and the CG Jung Institute of Zurich. The author of three memoirs, she has also published widely in journals and anthologies. Tiberghien teaches and lectures at graduate programs, at CG Jung Centers, and at writers' conferences in the United States and in Europe. She founded the Geneva Writers' Group in 1993. Tiberghien lives in Geneva, Switzerland.