"First published in 1886, Arthur Rimbaud's Illuminations--the work of a poet who had abandoned poetry before the age of twenty-one--changed the language of poetry. Hallucinatory and feverishly hermetic, it is an acknowledged masterpiece of world literature, still unrivaled for its haunting blend of sensuous detail and otherworldly astonishment. In Ashbery's translation of this notoriously elusive text, the acclaimed poet and translator lends his inimitable voice to a venerated classic"--Dust jacket flap.