Second Simplicity: New Poetry and Prose, 1991-2011
An eagerly awaited anthology of recent poetry and prose by the celebrated French poet Yves Bonnefoy Yves Bonnefoy, who will soon attain the age of ninety, has gratified his readers during the past two decades with the most prolific and innovative period of his splendid lifework. This volume presents in English and French an inviting array of his recent writings, carefully selected for their literary quality as well as their broad appeal. It features several works never published before and many that have never been translated into English. The first anthology of Bonnefoy's work to appear since 1995, this collection reflects the poet's powerful engagement with the New England landscape; its quiet woods and fields have helped to shape to the pared-down aesthetic of his recent years. The book is the first to showcase not only the poetry for which Bonnefoy is justly renowned but also his inventive compositions in prose. Appropriately, the book alternates more traditional verse with freer forms, just as the author has done in several major works of the past twenty years; that symbiotic approach is one of the hallmarks of this latter phase of his art. Superbly translated by Hoyt Rogers, the collection is organized chronologically, revealing clearly how the poet continues to extend and refine his scope and style. Rogers provides a masterly introduction in which he analyzes aspects of Bonnefoy's recent writings and the "second simplicity" that characterizes his late work.— Google Books
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CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Second Simplicity of Yves Bonnefoy xi From Début et fin de la neige (Beginning and End of the Snow) 1 « Première neige ... » ("First snowfall ...") 2 Le miroir (The Mirror) 4 La charrue (The Plow) 6 Le peu d'eau (A Bit of Water) 8 Le jardin (The Garden) 10 L'été encore (Summer Again) 12 « On dirait ... » ("It's like ...") 14 Noli me tangere (Noli Me Tangere) 16 « Juste avant l'aube ... » ("Just before dawn ...") 18 Les flambeaux (The Torches) 20 Hopkins Forest (Hopkins Forest) 24 La seule rose (The Only Rose) 30 From La vie errante (The Wandering Life) 37 Impressions, soleil couchant (Impressions at Sunset) 38 De vent et de fumée (From Wind and Smoke) 40 Une pierre (A Stone) 52 Le canot de Samuel Beckett (Beckett's Dinghy) 54 From Les planches courbes (The Curved Planks) 63 Une pierre (A Stone) 64 Une pierre (A Stone) 66 Une pierre (A Stone) 68 Une pierre (A Stone) 70 Une pierre (A Stone) 72 Une pierre (A Stone) 74 Une pierre (A Stone) 76 Une pierre (A Stone) 78 Une pierre (A Stone) 80 « Passant, ce sont des mots ... » ("Passer-by, these are words ...") 82 La pluie sur le ravin (Rain Falls on the Ravine) 84 La maison natale (The House Where I Was Born) 88 Les planches courbes (The Curved Planks) 112 From Dans un débris de miroir (In a Shard of Mirror) 119 Trois souvenirs de Borges (Three Recollections of Borges) 120 From La longue chaîne de l'ancre (The Anchor's Long Chain) 145 Aleş Stenar (Ales Stenar) 146 L'Amérique (America) 154 Le peintre dont le nom est la neige (The Painter Named Snow) 170 Les noms divins (Naming the Divine) 174 Le tombeau de Leon-Battista Alberti (Alberti's Tomb) 184 Le tombeau de Charles Baudelaire (Baudelaire's Tomb) 186 L'arbre de la rue Descartes (The Tree on Descartes Street) 188 L'invention de la flûte à sept tuyaux (The Invention of the Seven-Pipe Flute) 190 Le tombeau de Giacomo Leopardi (Leopardi's Tomb) 192 Mahler, Le chant de la terre (Mahler, The Song of the Earth) 194 Le tombeau de Stéphane Mallarmé (Mallarmé's Tomb) 196 A l'auteur de « La nuit » (To the Author of "Night") 198 San Giorgio Maggiore (San Giorgio Maggiore) 200 Sur trois tableaux de Poussin (On Three Paintings by Poussin) 202 Ulysse passe devant Ithaque (Ulysses Passes Ithaca) 204 San Biagio, à Montepulciano (San Biagio, at Montepulciano) 206 Une pierre (A Stone) 208 Le tombeau de Paul Verlaine (Verlaine's Tomb) 210 Un souvenir d'enfance de Wordsworth (A Childhood Memory of Wordsworth's) 212 Remarques sur l'horizon (Remarks on the Horizon) 214 Une variante de la sortie du jardin (Leaving the Garden: A Variant) 226 Une autre variante (Another Variant) 236 From Raturer outre (Crossing Out and In) 245 Une photographie (A Photograph) 246 Encore une photographie (Another Photograph) 248 Un souvenir (A Memory) 250 Le nom perdu (The Lost Name) 252 Le pianiste (The Pianist) 258 From L'heure présente (The Present Hour) 263 Voix entendue près d'un temple (Voice Heard near a Temple) 264 Bête effrayée (Scared Animal) 270 Première ébauche d'une mise en scène d'Hamlet (First Sketch for a Staging of Hamlet) 274 Hamlet en montagne (Hamlet in the Mountains) 280 Select Bibliography 288
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