Birds, Beasts and a World Made New

"Wonderful . . . and full of life. This is a book for discovery, for pleasure and delight." - George Szirtes, author of The Photographer at Sixteen

A revelatory volume of 2 of the 20th century's great poetic innovators, Guillaume Apollinaire and Velimir Khlebnikov, in vibrant new translations by Robert Chandler

Offering a fresh angle on two of the most innovative poets of the 20th century, and grouping poems by theme, celebrated translator and poet Robert Chandler finds surprising connections between Apollinaire and Khlebnikov, from their interest in animal poems and bestiaries to their distinctive approaches to war poetry.

Although Apollinaire and Khlebnikov never met, their restless innovations in poetic form shared much in common. Both pushed poetry to its limit, and their experiments proved fertile for generations of poets to come. Khlebnikov became associated with Futurism, though his inventiveness with language moved him far beyond it, while Apollinaire influenced a dizzying array of avant-garde movements,