Crow and Heron

Inspired by the landscapes of the Normandy coastline and the Jura mountains, with their rivers and forests, the poems of Jacques Moulin celebrate the natural world-here, in particular, the life of birds, capturing both their intensity and their playfulness. In response, David Ball’s translations strive to recreate in English the bold, rich inventiveness of the original French, conveying not only the wild cawing of the crows but also the silent, solitary presence of the heron. Crow and Heron is the perfect occasion to discover a poet who might be compared to English poets of birds and beasts, such as Lawrence or Hughes, while remaining, at all times, unmistakably French.