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French poetry site

the muse

Topics

(1) Selected readings and teaching podcasts
(2) Two Classic Poems (Le Pont Mirabeau and Correspondances),
(3) Gerard de Nerval Influencing Baudelaire,
(4) The Poet's Role in the World,
(5) René Char Poems
(6) Video (or audio) of Thirteen Quebecois Poets (in French)
(7) More Links

Selected readings and podcasts

Jacques Prévert (1900 - 1977) -- An exceptional twentieth century poet and screenwriter. Listen to a wonderful Serge Reggiani reading of Prévert's poem, Barbara at Dailymotion.com. See text (Fr & Eng).

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918) -- A fine early twentieth century poet, best known for his collection of poetry, Alcools (1913), which established his reputation.

At Vive Vox, there are separate readings of the spectacular poem Le pont Mirabeau, by both Apollinaire himself (an historic treat, though, as is to be expected, because of its age the sound quality is poor) and by Jacques Duby). See also text in Fr & Eng. In addition, check out Alain Macé reading at Télérama radio: La Lorelei ) (text fr), Mai (text fr), Nuit rhénane (text fr) and La chanson du mal-aimé (text fr), all of which are from Alcools.

The painting to the right by Henri Rousseau, a friend of Apollinaire, is called, "The Poet Apollinaire and his Muse," (with a play on the word "muse," no doubt a reference to Apollinaire's lady friend, Marie Laurencin pointing upward). It's located at the art museum in Bâle, Switzerland.

Rousseau painting

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) -- A nineteenth century giant, best known for the masterwork, Fleurs de mal (Flowers of Evil) (1857), from which an Alain Macé reading of the poem, A une passante, and a You Tube video . See text (fr & eng). On my site there is also a comparison of the poem with Gerard de Nerval's related, but earlier poem, Une allée de Luxembourg (1832). Also, at Archivox, Corinne Duhem reads L'albatros (text fr & eng), Arnaud Panossian, A une dame créole (text fr & eng), Olivier Le Piouff, Le chat (text fr & eng), Martine Delrue, Chant d'automne (text fr & eng), Spleen (text fr & eng) and Je t'adore à l'égal de la voûte nocturne (text fr & eng), Emilene Bayart, Harmonie du soir (text fr & eng) and La vie antérieure (text fr & eng), Michel-Oliver Michel, Le goût du néant (text fr & eng), Catherine Roux, La cloche fêlé (text fr & eng), and Cécile Vallée, La beauté (text fr & eng). Finally, a very fine poem, titled Baudelaire, by the noted American poet, Delmore Schwartz.

Learn French in Boston -- A French poetry web site, formidable, with podcasts on various famous French poems by Baudelaire, Hugo, Verlaine, Apollinaire, and others, taught by Camille.

Two classic poems

-- Le Pont Mirabeau and Correspondences

These two poems, the first by Apollinaire, the second Baudelaire, though more than half a century apart, have an aspect that unites them -- the idea that our lives are not just events that affect us -- though they bring joy and sorrow -- but that there's something more enduring, whether Apollinaire's man on the bridge, or Baudelaire's poet, as interpreter of signs, that lead to higher realms. More importantly, I love both poems, so give them a home here.

Le Pont Mirabeau (text in Fr & Eng) (reading at Vive Vox) is a major work, quite beautiful and highly lyrical/musical. Of this latter quality, it's sufficent to note that the poem is composed of 4 quatrains (3 of the lines of which, in each quatrain rhyme), and an identical couplet (after each quatrain), repeated 4 times, with rhyming lines ('Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure/Les jours s'en vont je demeure) ( Richard Wilbur's translation: "Let night come on bells end the day/The days go by me still I stay"), the effect of which in French is a dazzling mesmeric quality.

sous le pont Mirabeau

As to the poem's meaning, time and love, like the river itself, are in motion against the stability of the bridge. Tthe "I" on it, looking out, identifies with life: "[c]omme le vie est lente" (how life is slow), not what passes quickly, i.e., the river of our joys, sorrow, lost love, such as his breakup with poet- painter Marie Laurencin.

Aspects of Apollinaire's fascination with film are here -- how the rapid succession of frames create an illusion of motion, even as passing events do. See poemhunter.com. In addtion, the "I" can relate to the more permanent creative/spiritual aspect of self. Not religious, Apollinaire believed "creative inspiration was sacred," viewed poet as a prophet. See Apollinaire, Visual Poetry and Art Criticism by Williard Bohn (1993), pp. 77, 78. The poet, standing for higher aspects endures beyond passing joy and sorrow. Baudelaire lived a mere 48 years, but through this poem, he's still there on the bridge.

Camille at her site Learn French in Boston does a good job deconstructing the poem, line by line -- and in French too -- so I highly recommend it for those with some ability to follow spoken french, or who want to work in improving their abilities to follow spoken French. She reads and discusses the poem relatively slowly, which does help. So click here for that presentation.

Apollinaire in his life was quite an influential figure. In 1909, he brought Pablo Picaso and George Braque together, and is credited with having introduced to the world the word, "surrealist." In 1911, he was detained by the police for six days on suspicion of stealling the Mona Lisa, which was not recovered until 1913. See Amoeblog discussion. He arranged art shows, and wrote reviews about friends, such as Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau, Marc Chagall, Giorgio De Chirico, Andre Derain, Marcel Duchamp, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and others. He wrote librettos and collaborated with composers Eric Satie and Francis Poulenc. Apollinaire was wounded in the head in the First World War, and died of influenza in 1918.

Braque Painting

The second poem in this section is a landmark from Baudelaire's Fleurs de Mal [Flowers of Evil] (1857), entitled Correspondances, and is perhaps, the most important poem in that monumental book. But first, a brief discussion of Baudelaire. He was arguably the most important and influential of 19th century French poets, appealing to modern man because of his refusal to admit restriction in his choice of themes, and his view of the poetic power of symbols. (For biographies of his difficult life, financial difficulties, death at the age of 46 from syphilis, see veinotte.com and litweb.net).

There is from Mon Coeur Mis À Nu: Journal Intime de Charles Baudelaire [My naked heart: Intimate Journal of Charles Baudelaire], a fascinating few lines: " Il n’y a de grand parmi les hommes que le poète, le prêtre et le soldat./ L’homme qui chante, l’homme qui sacrifie et se sacrifie./ Le reste est fait pour le fouet." [There exist only three beings worthy of respect: the poet, the priest, and the soldier,/ the man who sings, the man who sacrifices, and the one who is sacrificed./ The rest are made for the whip."]

In Correspondences, (see the text in English translation and the French, courtesy of Dr. Hugo Heyrman) Baudelaire expresses his view on the nature of objects in this world in relation to other realms. Judd E. Hubert from an article in Yale French Studies calls the poem a culmination of romanticism, and an anticipation of symbolism and surrealism. He refers to it as:

"Baudelaire's "art poétique," . . . the manifesto of a "new" school of poetry . . . The poem suggests that the world is intelligible to the seer, to the "poète voyant" who alone possesses the key to all correspondences. All he need to is perceive the hidden analogies in Nature and express them in appropriate words."

According to Dr. Hugo Heyrman (at link of his above), the poem:

"introduced Baudelaire's theory of Synaesthesia: the idea that the senses can and should intermingle was enjoying a brief vogue, but its deeper significance was its prioritizing of symbol over symbolized. Inspired by the mystical theory of 'Correspondences,' a Swedenborgian term referring to the idea that every form in Heaven "corresponds to a form on Earth."

as above, so below

This all sounds a bit Platonic (The Greek philosopher's concept of an "ideal" object, behind every object in the real world, (e.g., the ideal door behind the earthly door), or even from the Kabbalistic view, as passed on, too, through Hermetic Qabalah, and tarot, "as above, so below," (the microcosm is as the macrocosm), though no doubt with some very significant modification. Thus, in Jewish Kabbalah, even as there is an earthly Garden of Eden, there is a heavenly counterpart.

Gerard de Nerval influencing Baudelaire --

To understand Baudelaire, it may be helpful to look, for an instant, at an another French poet, Gerard de Nerval, the nom de plume of "Gerard LaBrunie" (1808-1855). A brilliant translator of Goethe's Faust and some Heinrich Heine's poems, he suffered a series of nervous breakdowns, and finally committed suicide at the age of 47, two years before Fleurs de Mal appeared. Nerval was according to Wikipedia, the most essentially Romantic of the French poets. (Given his knowledge of German literature, one cannot but wonder if he took his nom de plume from the great German Romantic writer, Novalis (1772-1801).

Baudelaire by Courbet

It is interesting to compare a couple of Nerval's poems with Baudelaire's.

streetlamp man

In that regard, some of the mysticism exploding from Baudelaire's Correspondances (1857) could easily have found their genesis in lines of Nerval's Vers Dorés (1832), such as: "Chaque fleur est une âme à la Nature éclose ;/ Un mystère d'amour dans le métal repose:/ "Tout est sensible !" [Each flower is a soul to Nature blossoming;/ A mystery of love, in metal, reposes: Everything is sensitive]." Or later in Norval's poem, "Crains dans le mur aveugle un regard qui t'épie/ A la matière même un verbe est attaché ... / Ne la fais pas servir à quelque usage impie! [Fear in a blind wall, a look that spies on you. In the wall's substance, a verb is is attached. Don't make it serve any irreverent usage"].

The similaries between "Une allée de Luxembourg" (1832) and "a une passante" (1857) are more than striking (though I prefer the Baudelaire version). In both, men, presumably the poet/observer are totally struck, dazed, by a woman passing, whom they have seen for the first time, the only time, and believe in a fugitive moment, that there was a chance that that woman could have been the one to make them happy. Alas, for both it was not to be. Nerval says, " C'est peut-être la seule au monde/Dont le coeur au mien répondrait [She is perhaps the only one in the world, that my heart could respond to]. And then, "Mais non, - ma jeunesse est finie .../ Adieu, doux rayon qui m'as lui, -/Parfum, jeune fille, harmonie.../Le bonheur passait, - il a fui !" ["But no, my youth is finished/ Goodby, sweet ray which shined on me, - / Perfume, young woman, harmony . . . Happiness passed. It has fled.]. Baudelaire says concisely, imparting his own knowledge to the unspeaking other: "O toi que j'eusse aimée, ô toi qui le savais!" [Oh you whom I would have loved. Oh you who knew it]."

Nerval's influence on others, such as Baudelaire, helps to explain some of his importance.

The Poet's Role in the World

-- a) Baudelaire, b) Rimbaud, c) Prévert, and d) Char

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) has a view of the poet in L'albatros (Les Fleurs du Mal) (1857):

"semblable au prince des nuées/Qui hante la tempête et se rit de l'archer;/Exilé sur le sol au milieu des huées,/Ses ailes de géant l'empècherent de marcher," [similar to a prince of the clouds/who haunts the tempest, laughs at the archer;/ Exiled to earth in the middle of jeers,/ His giant wings prevent him from walking]."

albatros

Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), a French symbolist poet, in a May 15, 1871 letter to Paul Demeny, considers the poet a "seer," "stealer of fire," for whom "humanity" and "the animals, too" have become "his responsibility." How interesting that this artistic giant saw the poet's role in the world in such a fashion. He called Baudelaire, "the first poet, king of poets, a true God." (emphasis added).

angel with trumpet

Following in the latter's wake, he is himself famous for a fascinating, sonnet Voyelles (Vowels) (1871), with Baudelarian touches. In it he created a linkage between vowels (which are a quintessential part of words for the poets) and colors (enjoy this dazzling color-coded version of the poem), and through a synesthesia of sense, conjures the image of the poet crossing from Alpha to Omega. With his final tercet in the sonnet, Rimbaud touches on God, "O supreme trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,/Silences crossed by worlds and angels:/--O Omega, violet ray of His eyes." Voyelles has some similarities to Baudelaire's Correspondences, (discussed in the section, Gerard de Nerval Influencing Baudelaire), and is with it, one of the most analyzed of French poems. See discussion by Micael Esnault.

For Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), a poet involved in the surrealist movement but not limited by it (see Wikipedia bio), the power of the artist and art is a given. A beautiful example here is his poem Osiris ou La Fuite en Egypte (Osiris or the flight to Egypt) (see text and discussion), where in the middle of World War II, with Paris, both isolated and desolate, a couple take refuge in a museum (une musée), the Louvre, to enjoy a beautiful statute of Osiris. Notice the relation between the word, "musée" and "muse," (muse, in English), for the source of artistic inspiration. By the end of the poem, the statue (representative of the Egyptian god, who stands for resurrection) (see Wikipedia discussion) is a thing living (La statute d'Osiris vivante dans le bois mort) (the statue of Osiris living in the dead wood), and les amants s'embrassent (the lovers embrace) (Notice how when the couple entered the museum, they were just a man and a woman, and by the end, are lovers).Thus, for Prévert, the artist, through his work and the inspiration it gives, has the ability to renew a world devastated, as the present one is by a horrific war.

Notwithstanding the above, Prévert, who lived through the horrors of two World Wars, is famous for a type of poetry, evidenced by Ïnventaire (Inventory) (text), where he mixes objects without any apparent relation to each other, a kind of metaphor for the seemingly bizarre, unconnected universe in which we live. So while the artist may perform a creative role, is it truly redemptive, or just another piece in a random inventory of objects and living things in the universe? Poems similar to this one are now called in French "inventaire à la Prévert."

According to Virginia A. La Charite a modern poet, very much influenced by Rimbaud, is René Char (1907-1988) (see Wikipedia bio). Both share a "cosmic vision of a universe humanized by poetry." Char was, like Prévert, active at first in the Surrealist movement, where he worked with Breton and Éluard. During the war as a Resistance leader in the underground under the name of Capitaine Alexandre, he was attached to Allied Headquarters with responsibility for parachute missions into France.

After the war he worked with Albert Camus on a review, Empédocle. Noted for brevity of style -- austere, dense -- he is one who sees the poet as one who who can -- no small feat -- transform the world from dead to living.

-- René Char Poems

Lutteurs – René Char (from the period 1964-1970)

Dans le ciel des hommes, le pain des étoiles me sembla ténébreux, mais dans leurs mains étroites je lus la joute de ces étoiles en invitant d’autres: émigrantes du pont encore rêveuses; j’en recueillis la sueur dorée, et par moi la terre cessa de mourir.

bread of stars

Combatants (translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson)

In the sky of men, the bread of stars seemed to me shadowed and hard, but I read in their cramped hands the joust of these stars calling others: dreamy-eyed emigrants still on the bridge; I collected their golden sweat, and the earth, through me, ceased to die.

Pourquoi La Journée Vole -- René Char (from the period 1952-1960)

Le poète s’appuie, durant le temps de sa vie, à quelque arbre, ou mer, ou talus, ou nuage d’une certaine teinte, un moment, si la cironstance le veut. Il n’est pas soudé à l’égarement d’autrui. Son amour, son saisir, son bonheur ont leur equivalent dans tous les lieux où il n’est pas allé, où jamais il n’ira, chez les étrangers qu’il ne connaîtra pas. Lorsqu’on élève la voix devant lui, qu’on le presse d’accepter des égards qui retiennent, si l’on invoque à son propos les astres, il répond qu’il est du pays d’à côté, du ciel qui vient d’être englouti.
Le poète vivifie puis court au dénouement.
Au soir, malgré sur sa joue plusieurs fossettes d’apprenti, c’est un passant courtois qui brusque les adieux pour être là quand le pain sort du four.

Why the Day Steals By (translated by Nancy Naomi Carlson)

The poet leans on some tree, or sea, or slope, or cloud of a certain hue for a moment during his life, if circumstance smoothes the road. He’s not welded to others’ confusion. His love, his grasp, his joy have their match in all places he’s never been, nor will ever go, in strangers he’ll never know. When they ply him with prizes—those that would bind—and praise him with voices raised, invoking the stars, he responds that he comes from the country next door, from the sky just now engulfed.
The poet gives life then runs to the plot’s dénouement.
At night, despite dimples in cheeks like a novice, he cuts short his goodbyes—polite passerby—to be there when the bread leaves the oven.

Video (or audio) of Thirteen Quebecois Poets (in French)

La Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec present thirteen poets talking about their lives and work as well as reading a few poems: Claude Beausoleil (1948 - ), Nicole Brossard (1943 - ), Paul Chamberland (1839 - ), François Charron (1952 - ), Hélène Dorion (1958 - ), Louise Dupré (1949 - ), Michel Garneauv (1939 - ), Suzanne Jacob (1943 - ), Rachel Leclerc (1955 - ), Pierre Morency (1942 - ), Pierre Nepveu (1946 - ), Yves Préfontaine (1937 - ), and Élise Turcotte (1957 - ).