The French text (included here en face) is that provided by Project Gutenberg and has been cross-checked against the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade edition Verlaine: Oeuvres poétiques complètes (1962). The introduction and critical notes assembled by Martine Bercot in the Livre de Poche edition of the Poèmes saturniens (1996) are invaluable and a model of textual scholarship. I have relied on her notes frequently in my own, and have acknowledged them. The notes by Le Dantec and Borel in the Pléiade edition are also helpful.
I would like to thank Christine Couffin, Michèle Champagnat, Cathérine Dana, and Bryn Mawr College Professor of French (Emeritus) Mario Maurin for their help with this translation. Hanne Winarsky, Literature Editor of Princeton University Press, was loyal to this project even in its earliest (and roughest) stages.
“Parisian Sketch,” “Nightmare,” “Jesuitism,” and “The Song of the Ingénues,” together with the Introduction, appeared (in earlier versions) in the Spring 2008 issue of Parnassus: Poetry in Review, and I would also like to thank Herbert Leibowitz and Ben Downing for their encouragement. “Resignation,” “After Three Years,” “Night Effect,” “Sentimental Stroll,” “Mister Wiseman,” “Serenade,” and “Marco” appeared in the inaugural issue of Little Star (Spring 2011), and thanks are due to Ann Kjellberg, editor of that journal, for her interest.
This translation is dedicated to the memory of Colette Brèque.