Editor's note: Transnational Literature is delighted to be featuring the work of Lisa Gorton, an exceptional poet who has won many auspicious literary awards for her achievements. Lisa lives in Melbourne and writes poetry, fiction and essays. Her two most recent publications, both from Giramondo, are the poetry collection Hotel Hyperion and a novel, The Life of Houses. Her awards include the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry, the NSW People’s Choice Award and Prime Minister’s Prize for fiction, and the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal.
Author's note: These are not so much translations as poems projected onto Rimbaud’s ‘Villes I’ and ‘Villes II’ to cast light on his interest in imperial panoramas—a now-forgotten technology, in fragments scattered amongst his images—