Jean Cocteau Cocteau Poetry Collection Sogensha 1951 First ed

[PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS]

• Author: Jean Cocteau
• Translator: Horiguchi Daigaku (堀口大学)
• Original Edition: Collection Poètes d’aujourd’hui — Jean Cocteau. Une étude par Roger Lannes; Un choix de poèmes par Henri Parisot. Éditions Pierre Segers, Paris.
• Title: コクトオ詩集 (Kokutoo Shishu / Cocteau Poetry Collection)
• Series: 世界現代詩叢書 (Sekai Gendai Shi Sosho / World Contemporary Poetry Series)
• Publisher: Sogensha (創元社), Tokyo — Nihonbashi Kobune-cho 2/4
• Year Published: 1951 (Showa 26) — First Edition, First Printing. Printed October 20; Published October 30, 1951.
• Copyright: Originally Copyrighted by Pierre Segers, Paris. Copyrighted in Japan by Leon Prou.
• Format: Softcover. Collage-style cover design (abstract wood/board composition in original ochre and grey tones). Frontispiece: iconic photograph of Cocteau cradling a white mask.
• Language: Japanese
• Original Price: ¥220

[OVERVIEW]

The Poètes d’aujourd’hui series, published by Pierre Segers in Paris, was one of the defining editorial projects of postwar French poetry: a sequence of monographs, each devoted to a single poet, combining critical study with a selection of poems. The Cocteau volume — with a critical essay by Roger Lannes and a poetry selection by Henri Parisot — was among the most celebrated in the series. This 1951 Sogensha edition is the first Japanese translation, issued in the same year as the series was at the height of its Parisian prestige.

The translator is Horiguchi Daigaku (堀口大学, 1892–1981) — the supreme figure of French poetry translation in Japan, the man who introduced Apollinaire, Verlaine, Cocteau, and the French Symbolists to Japanese readers, and whose own poetry was shaped by the same Francophone modernism he spent his life translating. A Cocteau collection in Horiguchi's translation is not a secondary document: it is the primary Japanese encounter with Cocteau's poetry, in the hands of the one Japanese poet-translator who understood it from the inside.

The cover design — an abstract collage of overlapping wooden boards and planes in the original muted ochre and grey of the 1951 printing, with the title in dark red vertical characters — is a distinguished example of early-1950s Japanese constructivist book design, entirely suited to Cocteau's own visual world of collage, drawing, and surface. The frontispiece photograph — Cocteau cradling a white plaster mask, his eyes closed — is one of the most reproduced images of the poet.

[IMPORTANT NOTE FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS: EASY AI TRANSLATION]

While the text is printed in Japanese, you can easily read and study this historic book using modern smartphone AI tools. By taking a photo of any page with your smartphone and using free apps like Google Lens, ChatGPT, or Google Translate, the embedded AI will instantly scan and translate the text on your screen layout. Language is no longer a barrier to owning and enjoying this rare piece of literary history.

[WHY THIS VOLUME IS A PRIZED COLLECTOR'S ITEM]

1. Horiguchi Daigaku Translation: Horiguchi Daigaku is to French poetry in Japan what Baudelaire is to French poetry itself — the figure through whom an entire tradition was filtered and transformed. His translation of Cocteau is the standard Japanese text, and his name on the cover is a guarantee of literary seriousness. Books in Horiguchi's translation, in first-edition condition, are primary artifacts of Japanese literary history.
2. First Japanese Edition of the Segers Poètes d’aujourd’hui Cocteau: The Pierre Segers series is one of the most collected poetry imprints of the twentieth century. This 1951 Sogensha edition translates the Cocteau volume in the year of its Parisian currency — a document of the speed and seriousness with which postwar Japan engaged with contemporary French literature.
3. Iconic Cocteau Frontispiece: The photograph of Cocteau cradling a white mask — one of the most reproduced images of the poet — appears here as the frontispiece in its original 1951 Japanese printing.
4. Cover Design: The abstract collage cover — overlapping wooden planes in the original ochre and grey palette, with dark red vertical title characters — is a significant example of early-1950s Japanese constructivist book design, and a visual complement to Cocteau's own practice as a collagist and draughtsman.

[CONDITION]

Good Vintage Condition

• Cover: Good. The ochre and grey tones are the original printed colours of the 1951 design — not age-toning. Light wear to edges and spine ends consistent with 75 years.
• Rear Cover: Bookseller's label to upper left corner. Ink inscription visible to left side — clearly visible in listing photographs.
• Binding: Intact. Some wear to spine ends consistent with age.
• Interior & Pages: Age-toning consistent with 1951 paper stock. Frontispiece photograph present and clean.
• Please carefully inspect all high-resolution listing photos to verify condition.