Ninety-Nine Poems in Translation.

Selected by Harold Pinter, Anthony Astbury and Geoffrey Godbert. Grove/Atlantic, $21 (192p) ISBN 0-8021-1557-8 Anthologies are seemingly making a comeback. This one is designed to represent some of the finest poetry--living poets excluded--in translation and, ostensibly, to provide a far-reaching overview of the tradition of translation. But given the fact that none of the poems is accompanied by its original text, and that the collection is peppered with quirky, if wonderful, choices, it is perhaps best not read too studiously. Paging through the poems (each rarely running for more than a page) becomes a …