What language has the best poetry?

Troubadour   Mon May 17, 2010 7:04 pm GMT
Which languages produce some of the greatest or best sounding poetry?
PARISIEN   Mon May 17, 2010 7:35 pm GMT
Difficile, sans doute impossible de décider.

Je dirais volontiers que l'anglais (Shakespeare), l'allemand (Goethe, Schiller, Novalis, Rilke etc.) et le français (Du Bellay, Ronsard, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud...) sont à égalité en tête, mais il se pourrait que la poésie soit le (possiblement seul) domaine où toutes les langues sont équivalentes.
Fifine   Mon May 17, 2010 8:43 pm GMT
Russian has amazing poetry that puts that language on par with the Big Three (Fr/Gr/En). Pushkin, Lermontov, Akhmatova, Tsevetaeva, Mandelstam, Esenein..
Franco   Mon May 17, 2010 8:43 pm GMT
Spain of course.
Fifine   Mon May 17, 2010 8:47 pm GMT
and English has more than just Shakespeare! John Donne, Cower, Pope, Whitman, Wordsworth, Blake, Keats... my god!
PARISIEN   Mon May 17, 2010 11:30 pm GMT
J'aime sucer des potes!
Mabbettsville Mike   Tue May 18, 2010 1:54 am GMT
Some months ago, here at Antimoon, it was almost unanimously concluded that the best poetry is in Chinese.

(BTW -- the thread was started by Shuimo.)
Rude   Tue May 18, 2010 4:10 am GMT
I think most languages are capable of producing impressive works, but Chinese was actually one of the last ones on my mind. I'll need to check some out.
Irony   Tue May 18, 2010 6:35 am GMT
It was not concluded that Chinese has the best poetry.
I believe that discussion ended with Shuimo going into a Franco-style nationalistic breakdown in which he claimed that anyone who didnt think his country was the best at everything was an unevolved primitive.
Boy   Tue May 18, 2010 9:09 pm GMT
I think Spanish has some good poetry, such as the great Pablo Neruda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF79a4K9wGg&feature=related

And Italian and French as well.
@PARISIEN   Wed May 19, 2010 12:08 am GMT
What's the point of always answering in French?
Fifine   Wed May 19, 2010 1:24 am GMT
Whether you like it or not, French still is an international language of communication, and most users here can at least understand (if not respond in Fr) what PARISIEN writes.
Frank   Thu May 20, 2010 2:52 am GMT
I must admit Baudelaire and Verlaine are some great French poets. And the sound of the language makes it all the more romantic.
Baldewin   Thu May 20, 2010 3:56 pm GMT
How can we lose these annoying French comprehension skills?
Shi Shi   Thu May 20, 2010 4:16 pm GMT
Chinese, of course!

Go ahead and try it! You can do it too:
(Just say shit without the 't')

石室詩士施史,shi shi shi shi shi shi
嗜獅,shi shi
誓食十獅,shi shi shi shi
氏時時適市,shi shi shi shi shi
氏視十獅,shi shi shi shi
恃矢勢,shi shi shi
使是十獅逝世,shi shi shi shi shi shi
氏拾是十獅尸,shi shi shi shi shi shi
適石室,shi shi shi
石室濕,shi shi shi
氏使侍拭石室,shi shi shi shi shi shi
石室拭,shi shi shi
氏始試食十獅尸,shi shi shi shi shi shi
食時,shi shi
始識十獅尸實是十石獅尸,shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi shi
試釋是事實。shi shi shi shi shi

Truly poetic, isn't it?