5 November 2013

Square des Poètes, Auteuil

The Square des Poètes, or Jardin des Poètes, is an amazing public park adjoining the Jardin des serres (greenhouses) in Auteuil, in the 16th arrondissement. It is the brainchild of the poet Pascal Bonetti (1888–1975), President of Honour of the Société des Poètes français. Here, a large number of metal plaques containing verses of poets – some of whom are quite obscure writers – are attached to rocks and scattered about the lawns of the park, along with several busts. Time and the weather have made some of these plaques less legible than others, although I transcribe (but don't translate) each one in alphabetical order (apart from Bonetti) in the hope of not making too many errors: at almost one hundred, the sheer number is exceptional!

I only hope that no plans for extension of the monster Roland Garros tennis complex nearby ever interfere with this wonderful public space.
 
DÉDIÉ PAR LA VILLE DE PARIS AUX POÈTES
CE JARDIN
A ÉTÉ INAUGURÉ LE 15 MAI 1954
PAR
M. FRÉDÉRIC DUPONT
PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL MUNICIPAL
EN PRÉSENCE DE
M. ANDRÉ MARIE
MINISTRE DE L'EDUCATION NATIONALE
ANCIEN PRÉSIDENT DU CONSEIL
ET DE
M. PASCAL BONETTI
PRÉSIDENT DE LA SOCIÉTÉ DES POÈTES FRANÇAIS
 
PASCAL BONETTI

C'est l'heure faste où le couchant
Met son point d'orgue sous les arbres
Comme pour exalter le chant
Qu'ici l'on grava sur les marbres.
Respire sur ces tertres verts
Le lyrique encens de la terre...

(PROMENADE VESPERALE)
 
GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE
(1880 – 1918)
L'ADIEU

J'ai cueilli ce brin de bruyère
l'automne est mort souviens-t'en
Nous ne nous verrons plus sur terre
Odeur du temps brin de bruyère
Et souviens-toi que je t'attends.

(Alcools)
 
LOUIS ARAGON
1897 – 1982

O mois des floraisons mois des métamorphoses
Mai qui fut sans nuage et juin poingnadé
je n'oublierai jamais les lilas ni les rose
Ni ceux que le printemps dans ses plis a gardés.
 
EDMOND ARAUCOURT
1856 – 1941
La Soeur

Comme un clair paysage
         après la traversée.
Tu reposes de la tempête et du labeur,
    Et tes bras dans lesquels
         on peut dormir sans peur.
    Sont des jardins d'oublis
           où meurt toute pensée.

(Seul)
 
THÉODORE de BANVILLE
(1823 – 1891)

Pâle et muet, j'entends le murmure des roses:
Et de tous les trésors et de toutes les choses
Qui plantent dans nos coeurs un regret meurtrier,
Tu le sais bien, je n'ai voulu que toi, Laurier!

(Les Exiles)
 
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
1821 – 1867

Voici venir les temps oû, vibrant sur ta tige,
Chaque fleur s'évapore ainsi qu'un encensoir,
Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir,
Valse mélancolique et langoureux vertiges!

(HARMONIE DU SOIR)
 
RÉMY BELLEAU
(1528 – 1577)

L'aubépine et l'aiglantin,
Et le thym.
L'œillet. le lys et les roses,
En cette belle saison,
A foison,
Montrent leurs robes écloses.

(Avril)
 
ANDRÉ BERRY
(1902 – 1986)
EPILOGUE

Vie à tous désirs favorables,
Reviens à moi, vie adorable,
Reviens à moi, qui tant aimai !

(Le congé de jeunesse)
 
Émile BLÉMONT
1838 – 1927

Quand il ne restera de moi qu'un peu de cendre,
Oubliez ma faiblessse, oubliez mes travers,
Ne retenez, sans trop y condescendre
Que les plus touchant de mes vers.
NICOLAS BOILEAU
(1636 – 1711)

Laborieux valet du plus commode maître
Qui pour te rendre heureux ici bas pouvait naître,
Antoine, gouverneur de mon jardin d'Auteuil,
Qui dirige chez moi l'if et le chèvrefeuil,
Et sur mes espaliers, industrieux génie,
Sais si bien exercer l'art de La Quintinie.
 
GASTON BOURGEOIS
1910 – 1988

Nous poursuivrons le temps qui, rapide, nous fuit,
L'amour au coeur et sans regarder en arrière
Avec pour seul bagage une âme de lumière...
Et nous mettrons un peu de rêve dans la nuit.

(ÉPAVES)
 
MAURICE CARÊME
(1899 – 1978)

Eh oui ! Je le sais bien !
Je n'emporterai rien,
Pas même l'ombre d'un nuage.
Mais qu'elle est belle, dans ma main,
Cette fraise sauvage !
 
FRANCIS CARCO
(1886 – 1958)

Je me souviens de la bohême,
De mes amours de ce temps-là !
O me amours, j'ai trop de peine
Quand refleurissent les lilas.
 
JACQUES CARTON
1903 – 1967
d'après Poussin

Courbés sur mon tombeau, jeunes pâtres d'Hellade,
Que scrutez-vous en moi qui vous ressemblais tant?

Mythologies familières

JEAN CASSOU
1897 – 1996
XXV

Paris, ses monuments de sang drapés, son ciel
couleur aile d'avion, dans le soleil couchant,
J'ai tout revu, et j'entendais renaître un chant
lointain, pareil à une levée d'étincelles.

(Sonnets composés au secret)
 
PHILIPPE CHABANEIX
(1898 – 1982)

Mais, loin des rythmes et des sèves
Que porte en soi le printemps vert
Les perce-neige de nos rêves
N'ont pas duré plus que l'hiver.

(Musique des jours et des nuits)
 
ANDRÉ CHÉNIER
1762 – 1794

Auteuil, lieu favori, bien fait pour les poètes.
Que de rivaux de gloire unis sous les berceaux.
 
JEAN COCTEAU
1889 – 1963

Je mourrai, tu vivras et c'est ce qui m'éveille !
       Est-il une autre peur ?
Un jour ne plus entendre auprès de mon oreille
       Ton haleine et ton Coeur.

(Plain-Chant)
 
François COPPÉE
(1842-1908)

Est-ce que les oiseaux
se cachent pour mourir ?
 
TRISTAN CORBIERE
1845–1875
RONDEL

Il fait noir, enfant, voleur d'étincelles!
Il n'est plus de nuits, il n'est plus de jours;
Dors... en attendant venir toutes celles
Qui disaient: Jamais! Qui disaient: Toujours!

(Les Amours jaunes)
 
PIERRE CORNEILLE
(1606 – 1684)

Et je dirai que je vous aime
Seigneur, si je savais ce que c'est que d'aimer.

(Psyché, acte III, scène II)
 
GABRIELE d'ANNUNZIO
(1863 – 1938)

France France la douce, entre les heroines
bénie, amour du monde...
Fraîche comme le jet de ton blanc peuplier
que demain tu sauras en guirlandes plier
pour les chants non chantés de ta jeune pléiade...
 
AGRIPPA D'AUBIGNÉ
1552 – 1630

Une rose d'automne
est plus qu'une autre exquise.

(Les Tragiques)
 
LUCIE DELARUE-MARDUS
1880 – 1945

L'odeur de mon pays
         était dans une pomme...

(L'ODEUR DE MON PAYS)
 
Abbé JACQUES DELILLE
1738 – 1813

Les doux ressouvenirs habitent vos bosquets.
La tristesse chérit leur silence paisible.
Et, pour exprimer vos regrets,
La pierre même apprend à devenir sensible.

(VERS POUR LE JARDIN DE MME [D]'HOUDETOT)
 
TRISTAN DERÈME
(1889 – 1941)

Nous attendions des héroïnes
Qui dormissent sous des troènes
Ou tendissent sur des terrasses
Des lis verts et des branches rousses

(La verdure dorée)
 
 
Marceline DESBORDES-VALMORE
(1786 – 1853)

J'ai voulu ce matin te rapporter des roses
Mais j'en avais tant pris dans mes ceintures closes
Que les nœuds trop serres n'ont pu les contenir...
Respires-en sur moi l'odorant souvenir.
 
Robert DESNOS
1900 – 1945

Or, du fond de la nuit, nous témoignons encore
De la splendeur du jour et de tous ses présents.
Si nous ne dormons pas, c'est pour guetter l'aurore
Qui prouvera qu'enfin nous vivons au présent.
 
GÉRARD D'HOUVILLE
Mme h. DE RÉGNIER, NÉE MARIA DE HEREDIA
(1873–1963)

Ta vie est le prestige et le parfum d'une Heure,
Et les Fleurs qui t'aimaient ne te surivront pas.

(LE JARDIN DE LA NUIT)
 
JEAN-CLAUDE DIAMANT-BERGER
1920 – 1944
MORT POUR LA FRANCE

Lève ton âme, peuple de France,
il s'agit de refaire le monde
à la mesure du Seigneur.
 
LÉON DIERX
1838 – 1912

J'ai voulu vivre sourd aux voix des multitudes,
Comme un aïeul couvert de silence et de nuit,
Et pareil aus sentiers qui vont aux solitudes,
Avoir des songes frais que nul désir ne suit.

(Les Lèvres closes de Paris 1867)
 
CHARLES D'ORLÉANS
(1391 – 1465)

Le temps a laissé son manteau
de vent de froidure et de pluye,
Et s'est vestu de broderye
De soleil luisant cler et bleu...
 
JOACHIM DU BELLAY
(1522 – 1560)

A vous troppe legere
Qui d'aile passagere
Par le monde volez...
J'offre ces violettes
Ces lis, et ces fleurettes
Et ces roses icy...
 
GEORGES DUHAMEL
1884 – 1966

Moi qui n'ai chéri que la terre
Parée d'herbe neuve et de vent,
Je ressusciterai pourtant
Un jour, dans ma ville natale.

(Élégies, XXIV)
 
MAURICE DU PLESSYS
(1864 – 1924)
L'Hellade

Lumière, ô de l'Amour pudique récompense!
Je meurs content! Je nage aux sources du vrai Bien:
Apollon, à présent, brise un roseau qui pense!

(Le Feu sacré)
 
JACQUES DYSSORD
1880 – 1952

Comme tombent les fleurs des pommiers en avril
A tous vents ont neigé mes pauvres confidences.
On frappe à la porte.
 
ERNEST FLEURY
(1863 – 1931)

Viens ! je te dirai des choses si blanches,
        Que ni les pevenches
        Ni les blancs muguets
N'aurent recueilli, tapis sous les mousses.
        De phrases si douces
        Ni de chants plus gais.

(Andantes)
 
MARTHE-CLAIRE FLEURY
1914 – 1991

La lumière promise aux chemins de prière
Même le temps venu d'en vivre la splendeur
Tu ne la verras pas. Tu seras la lumière

(LA RETRAITE DE GRACE)
 
JEAN-PIERRE CLARIS DE FLORIAN
1755 – 1794

Que je te plains, petite plante,
Disait un jour le lierre au thym,
Toujours ramper, c'est ton destin,
Ta tige chétive et tremblante
Sort à peine de terre, et la mienne dans l'air
Unie au chêne altier que chérit Jupiter,
S'élance avec lui dans la nue.

(LE LIERRE ET LE THYM)
 
MAURICE FOMBEURE
1906–1981

Il pleur sur le printemps, sur tout, sur les étoiles.
Ne crois-tu pas la nuit qu'il pleut toujours
Quand sur ces vieux chevaux maigres, boiteux et sourds
L'entends jurer sans bruit les cochers de l'averse.

(A dos d'oiseau)
 
JEAN FROISSART
(1333 – 1400)

Sur toutes flours tient-on la rose à belle
Et en après, je croi, la violette ;
La flour de lys est belle, et la perselle ;
Et li pluisour aiment moult l'anquelie,
Le pyonier, le muguet, la soussie.
Cascune flour a par li sa merite.
Mès je vous di, tant que pour ma partie,
Sur toutes flours j'aime la Margherite.
 
 
JOACHIM GASQUET
1873 – 1921

Et soudain ses fraîcheurs, sa splendeur caressante,
Sa tendre ivresse, ses murmures, son émoi,
Ses sources, ses frissons, l'appel de chaque sente,
Prennent forme... Un visage... Ô mon amour, c'est toi !

(LES CHANTS DE LA FORÊT)
 
 
 
 
Théophile GAUTIER
(1811–1872)

Pour les petites pâquerettes
Sournoisement, quand tout dort,
Il repasse des collerettes.
Et cisèle des boutons d'or.

(Premier sourire de printemps)
 
Rosemonde GÉRARD
(1870 – 1953)

Sur le banc familier, tout verdâtre de mousse,
Sur le banc d'autrefois nous reviendrons causer.
Nous aurons une joie attendrie et très douce,
La phrase finissant par un bais.

(Les Pipeaux)
 
FERNAND GREGH
(1873 – 1960)

Il n'est rien de plus beau qu'une fleur en Avril,
sinon la feuille d'or qui tombe au vent d'Automne.

(Vers dorés)
 
LOUIS GUILLAUME
(1907 – 1971)

Un arbre échoué se lève
Part dans le matin mendier
De toutes ses feuilles données
Reste l'homme.

(Agenda)
 
JOSÉ MARIA de HÉREDIA
(1843 – 1905)

Ici git, Etranger, la verte sauterelle
Que durant deux saisons nourrit la jeune Hellé
Et dont l'aile vibrant sous le pied dentelé
Bruissait dans le pin, la cytise ou l'airelle...

Des larmes d'un enfant, sa tombe est arrosée
Et l'aurore pieuse y fait chaque matin
Une libation de gouttes de rosée.
 
Paul HEURTEBIZE
1901 – 1985

Au calme de la nuit ton jardin se repose...
Toute ta vie est la qui palpite et qui dort :
Lissant secrètement sa chrysalide d'or.
Ta beauté se dépouille et se métamorphose.
 
 
 
VICTOR HUGO
(1802 – 1885)

Quand je suis parmi vous, arbres de ces grands bois,
Dans tout ce qui m'entoure et me cache à la fois,
Dans votre solitude où je rentre en moi-même,
Je sens quelqu'un de grand qui m'écoute et qui m'aime.
 
FRANCIS JAMMES
1868 – 1938

Lys si beau dont la robe est d'une pure cire
Un insecte s'acharne à te donner la mort
Mais tel que le poète en secouant sa lyre
Ton cœur sur l'ennemi sème une poudre d'or.
 
TRISTAN KLINGSOR
(1874 – 1966)
LE SOURCIER

A quoi bon courir, tel un baladin,
Le bonheur n'est pas ailleurs, quoi qu'on pense.
Le bonheur est eau profonde
Dans ton jardin.

(L'Oiseau sur l'épaule)
 
Louise LABÉ
(1533 – 1566)

Veux-tu Zéphyr de ton heur me donner
Et que par toi ne renouvelle?
Fais mon soleil devant moi retourner,
Et tu verras s'il ne me rend plus belle.
 
JEAN de LA FONTAINE
(1621 – 1695)

J'ai fait parler le loup et répondre l'agneau
J'ai passé plus avant, les arbres et les plantes
Sont devenus chez moi créatures parlantes
Qui ne prendrait ceci pour un enchantement?
 
ALPHONSE DE LAMARTINE
1790 – 1869

Voilà ce chêne solitaire
Dont le rocher s'est couronné :
Parlez à ce tronc séculaire,
Demandez comment il est né.

(LE CHÊNE)
 
PATRICE DE LA TOUR DU PIN
(1911 – 1975)

Et laissez-vous mener vers le jardin de l'Avenir :
La lumière porte son secret.

(Une somme de poésie)
 
ANDRÉ LEBOIS
(1916 – 1978)

Ce n'est pas pour moi, pour mes jours d'abeilles
Que j'amasse cire à pleine corbeille,
Où ton deuil, frelon viendrait s'abîmer.
Mais chante. Et Paris peut illuminer.

(Vers la nuit d'Idumée)
 
TRISTAN L'HERMITE
(1601 – 1655)

Auprès de cette grotte sombre
Où l'on respire un air si doux,
L'onde lutte avec les cailloux
Et la lumière avecque l'ombre.

(LE PROMENOIR DE DEUX ENFANTS)
 
LECOMTE DE LISLE
1818 – 1894
Nell

Ta rose de pourpre, à ton clair soleil.
O Juin, étincelle enivrée,
Penche aussi vers moi ta coupe dorée :
Mon coeur à ta rose est pareil.

(Poèmes antiques)
 
Jean LOISY
1901 – 1992

Donnez-leur un instant sur le seuil du mystère
De savoir ce qui était douceur de la terre.
 
MAURICE MAGRE
(1877 – 1941)

Et plus tard un jeune arbre un matin de printemps,
Fera monter parmi les pierres sa ramure,
et les mères verront dans les yeux des enfants
poindre, poindre les tours de la ville future.
 
 
FRANÇOIS DE MALHERBE
(1555 – 1628)

Beau parc et beau jardin, qui dans votre clôture
Avez toujours des fleurs et des ombrages verts,
Non sans quelque d'emon qui défend aux hivers
D'en effacer jamais l'agréable peinture.

(Chanson)
 
STÉPHANE MALLARMÉ
(1842 – 1890)

Des avalanches d'or du vieil azur, au jour
premier et de la neige éternelle des astres,
mon Dieu, tu détaches les grands calices pour
la terre jeune encore et vierge de désastres [...]
et tu fis la blancheur sanglotante des lys.
 
LOUIS MANDIN
1872 – 1944
(Résistant, mort en déportation
ainsi que son épouse)

La vie est douce à caresser
Seulement lorsqu'elle repose.


(L'Aurore du soir)
 
FRANÇOIS MAURIAC
1885 – 1970

Mieux que dormir, mourir sépare
Et toute chair et tout amour –
Même si l'ami de Lazare
Les ressuscite au dernier jour.

(Orages)
 
 
Frédéric Mistral with rather more facial hair than in real life, although his name is not mentioned on the statue, presumably because it has come adrift or, rather less likely, been stolen. However, a plaque very close to the statue  – in French and provençal – gives a quotation:
 
FRÉDÉRIC MISTRAL
(1830 – 1914)

Beu Dieu, Dieu ami, sus lis alo
De nostro lingo provençale
Fai que posque quera al branco dis aücèa !

(MIREILLE – CHANT I)
 
Dieu beau, Dieu ami, sur les ailes
de notre langue provençale
fais que je puisse attendre la branche des oiseaux !

(EXTRAIT DE MIREILLE)
 
 
 
JEAN MORÉAS
(1856 – 1910)

Rompant soudain le deuil de ces jours pluvieux,
Sur les grands marronniers qui perdent leur couronne,
Sur l'eau, sur le tardif parterre et dans mes yeux
Tu verses ta douceur, pâle soleil d'automne.
 
Alfred DE MUSSET
(1810 – 1857)

Mes chers amis, quand je mourrai,
Plantez un saule au cimetière.
J'aime son feuillage éploré ;
La pâleur m'en est douce et chère,
Et son ombre sera légère
À la terre où je dormirai.

(Lucie)

GÉRARD DE NERVAL
1818 – 1855

La connais-tu, Daphné, cette ancienne romance,
Au pied du sycomore ou sous les lauriers blancs,
Sous l’olivier, le myrte, ou les saules tremblants,
Cette chanson d’amour qui toujours recommence?
 
ANNA DE NOAILLES
1876 – 1933
 
Les marronniers sur l'air plein d'or et de lourdeur,
Repandent leurs parfums et semble[nt] les étendre,
On n'ose pas marcher ni remuer l'air [t]endre,
De peur de déranger le sommeil des odeurs.

(Il fera longtemps clair ce soir)

 
MARIE NOËL
1883 – 1967
Attente

J'ai vécu dans le savoir,
    Comme l'hebe pousse...
Le matin, le jour, le soir
    Tournaient sur la mousse.'

(Les chansons et les heures)
 
GERMAIN NOUVEAU
(1851 – 1920)
Les Mains

Il circule un printemps mystique dans les veines
Où court la violette, où le bluet sourit ;
Aux lignes de la paume ont dormi les verveines :
les mains disent aux yeux les secrets de l'esprit.

(La Doctrine de l'Amour)
 
EVARISTE D. DE PARNY
(1753 – 1814)

C'est aux champs que l'Amour naquit
L'Amour se deplaît à la ville
Un bocage futson asile
Un gazon fut son premier lit.

(poésies divers)
 
CHARLES PÉGUY
1873 – 1914

Heureux ceux qui sont morts dans une juste guerre!
Heureux les épis mûrs et les blés moissonnés.

Eve (1913)
 
RAOUL PONCHON
1848 – 1937

Si mon corps, que le Mal grise,
Prit des chemins hasardeux,
Mon âme dut plaire aux Dieux,
Etant au Bien toute acquies,
Ah! la promenade exquise!
 
 
 
Alexandre Pouchkine (Eng. Pushkin)
1799 – 1837
 
SULLY PRUDHOMME
1839 – 1907

L'astronomie atteint
       où ne ment plus l'azur.

(Le Zénith)
 
 HENRI de RÉGNIER
(1864 – 1936)

Un petit roseau m'a suffi
Pour frémir l'herbe haute
Et les doux saules
Et le ruisseau qui chante aussi
Un petit roseau m'a suffi
A faire chanter la forêt.

 
JEAN RICHPIN
1849 – 1929

Il faut forcer l'aurore a naitre
                 en y croyant.
 
ARTHUR RIMBAUD
(1854 – 1891)

Les tilleuls sentent bon dans les bons jours de juins !
L'air est parfois si doux qu'on ferme la paupière ;
Le vent change de bruits, la ville n'est pas loin,
A des parfums de vigne et dews parfums de bière.

(Roman)
 
PIERRE DE RONSARD
(1524 – 1585)

Mignonne, allons voir si la rose
Qui ce matin avoit desclose
Sa robe de pourpre au soleil
A point perdu, ceste vesprée
Les plis de sa robe pourprée,
Et son teint au vostre pareil.
 
Edmond ROSTAND
(1868 – 1918)

Je t'adore Soleil! Tu mets sans l'air des roses.
Des Flammes dans la source, un dieu dans le buisson !
Tu prends un arbre obscur et tu l'apothéoses !
O Soleil, toi sans qui les choses
Ne seraient ce qu'elles sont !

(Hymne au Soleil)
 
MAURICE ROSTAND
(1891 – 1956)

La nuit sur le tombeau
...et le chemin pâle n'avance
que dans le sens du Souvenir.

(Les Insomnies)
 
ALBERT SAMAIN
(1858 – 1900)

Les astres au ciel noir commencent à neiger,
et, là-bas, immobile au sommet de la côte
rêve la silhouette antique d'un berger.
 
ALAN SEEGER
Mort pour la France
1888 – 1916

I have a rendez-vous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When spring comes back with rustling shade.
 
VICTOR SEGALEN
(1878 – 1919)

Ville au bout de la route
et route prolongeant la ville :
Ne choisis donc pas l'une ou l'autre,
Mais l'une et l'autre bien alternées.

(Conseils au bon voyageur.)
 
HÉLÈNE SEGUIN
1882 – 1972
L'Éventail

Il est vivant et parfumé comme une fleur
Dont la corolle souple au gré du vent voltige.
Et le bras qui le tient semble être la tige.

(Le miroir de Clélie)
 
SABINE SICAUD
1913 – 1928
LES FONTANELLES

Verts non pas anglais, vert plus doux
Qu'ont les pelouses de chez nous,
Couchants lilas baignés de roux,
Volets s'ouvrant dans le feuillage.

(Poèmes d'enfant)
 
ANDRÉ STERLING
(1890 – 1978)

Un soleil en moi-même est plus beau qui m'éclaire

(Écrit dans la lumière d midi)
 
PAUL-JEAN TOULET
(1867 – 1920)

Ce n'est pas drôle de mourir
Et d'aimer tant de choses :
La nuit bleue et les matins roses.
Les fruits lents à mûrir.

(Poèmes inachevés)
 
PAUL VALÉRY
(1871 – 1945)

Patience, patience
Patience dans l'azur
Chaque atome de silence
Est la chance d'un fruit mûr!
 
MARGUERITE DE VALOIS
[Marguerite de Navarre, née d'Angoulême]
1492 – 1549

Sur le gazon et sous les vers sapins,
Sous cabinets de fleuris aubépines,
Pour reposer, Diane s'étoit mise...

(HISTOIRE DES SATYRES ET DES NYMPHES DE DIANE)
 
André FOULON de VAULX
1873 – 1951

Mon seul titre à mes yeux
Fût d'être solitaire :
Et je veux mourir seul
comme j'aurai vécu.
 
LÉON VÉRANE
1886 – 1854

Les livres de quelques poètes,
Une pipe, un flacon poudreux,
M'ont suffi pour changer en fête
D'humbles jours sous de calmes cieux.
 
Paul VERLAINE
(1844 – 1896)

Les roses comme avant palpitent comme avant
Les grands lys orgueilleux se balancent au vent
Chaque alouette qui va et qui vient m'est connue.

(POÈMES SATURNIENS. APRÈS 3 ANS)
 
THÉOPHILE DE VIAU
(1590 – 1636)

Dans ce val solitaire et sombre
Le cerf qui brame au bruit de l'eau,
Penchant ses yeux dans un ruisseau,
S'amuse à regarder son ombre.

(LA SOLITUDE)
 
ALFRED DE VIGNY
1797 – 1863

La nature t'attend dans un silence austère
L'herbe élève à tes pieds son nuage des soirs,
Et le soupir d'adieu du soleil à la terre
Balance les beaux lys comme des encensoirs.

(LA MAISON DU BERGER)
 
CHARLES VILDRAC
1882 – 1971

Sous les amandiers, au pied des treilles,
Au coeur des corbeilles,
Au sein des massifs, au long des allées,
Sont tombées fanées,
De toutes senteurs, de toutes couleurs,
Des fleurs et des fleurs.

(IMAGES ET MIRAGES)
 
François VILLON
(1431 – 1484)

Bien sçai se j’eusse estudié
Ou temps de ma jeunesse Folle
Et a bonnes mœurs dédié,
J’eusse maison et couche molle !
 
RENÉE VIVIEN
(1877 – 1909)
 
Voici la porte d'où je sors...
O mes roses et mes épines!
Qu'importe l'autrefois ? Je dors
En songeant aux choses divines...

(Poèmes retrouvées)

31 October 2013

Hector Guimard's bouche du métro, Porte Dauphine

The bouche du metro (or métro entrance) at Porte Dauphine in the 16th arrondissement close to the Bois de Boulogne is the best example in the whole network. It is by the noted architect Hector Guimard (1867–1942), a major proponent of Art Nouveau. This work of art is particularly noted for its glass roof and its orange ceramic panels. It was opened in 1900.



My other Guimard post is linked below:

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Parc Monceau (revisited), 8th arrondissement

Pierre Drieu la Rochelle: Le Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine #3

 
Inevitably, the 'Pléiadisation' of Pierre Drieu la Rochelle (1893–1945) last year (2012) brought shocked objections. How could it not? A fascist's writings allowed into the esteemed Pléiade? Fascist Drieu certainly was (specifically from 1934), although he saved his friend Jean Paulhan from the Gestapo, and also saved such writers as Sartre. Drieu's life in any case can't be reduced to simplistic condemnations: he was riddled with contradictions. What would have become of him if he'd gone into hiding after the liberation of Paris (as for instance André Malraux suggested) and not killed himself?

Anatole France: Le Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine #2

 
This time I had no trouble finding the grave of Anatole France (1844–1924),  François Anatole Thibault's pseudonym. He was one of the greatest writers and literary critics of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in 1921 he was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature. He was also involved in many of the social and political concerns of his time – he was a Dreyfusard, for instance.
 
A great number of Anatole France's books are freely available online, in French and in English, via Project Gutenberg. I provide a link to them below, as well as to my original post of other graves in this cemetery:
 
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Anatole France's work
Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine

Charles de Bernard: Le Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine #1

'ICI

REPOSE

CHARLES DE BERNARD

du Grail.

NÉ À BESANÇON (DOUBS)
LE 24 FÉVRIER, 1804.
DÉDÉDÉ À SABLONVILLE, CN DE NEUILLY*,
LE 6 MARS 1850.


ÉCRIVAIN DISTINGUÉ.
MODESTE DANS LE SUCCÈS.
SIMPLE DANS SES HABITUDES.
COEUR NOBLE ET DÉVOUÉ.
IL A VÉCUT POUR SA FEMME
ET SES ENFANS
DONT IL FIT LE BONHEUR.

PRIEZ POUR LUI.'

'DISTINGUISHED WRITER.
MODEST IN HIS SUCCESS.
SIMPLE IN HIS WAYS.
A NOBLE AND DEVOTED HEART.
HE LOVED HIS WIFE
AND CHILDREN
WHOM HE FILLED WITH HAPPINESS.
 
 PRAY FOR HIM.'

Charles de Bernard was a novelist and short story writer who was very popular in the 1840s. He was a friend of Balzac and was translated into English and appreciated both in Great Britain and the USA.

Time has not been kind to his memory. Writing in the late 1870s, Henry James considered him a second-rate French author largely of only historical interest. He is almost forgotten today.

*Sablonville (literally 'Sandtown') was a village in the commune of Neuilly-sur-Seine. Today the nearby métro station Les Sablons (Jardin d'Acclimatation) remembers the Plaine des Sablons, where sand was extracted for building purposes.

Below is a link to a novel by Bernard, plus a link to an earlier post I made on other graves in this cemetery:

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Charles de Bernard: Le Noeud gordien (1938)
Cimetière ancien de Neuilly-sur-Seine

30 October 2013

Eça de Queiroz in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine (92)

I'll try to keep these posts (photos shot in a month in the Paris area mid-September to mid-October) in date order, although I may fail because of tricky ones I have to research too much. This was the first day and the clouds appearing to predict rain held off most of the time – in fact almost all of the time it was superb summer weather until the last few days.

OK, here goes, and the first writer mentioned isn't even French.

'EÇA DE QUEIROZ
ÉCRIVAIN ET DIPLOMATE
1845–1900'
 
I chose not to crop the photo as I love the memory of the Grande Arche de La Défense relatively close behind me as I capture this in the central reservation on avenue Charles de Gaulle in Neuilly-sur-Seine, the bust obscuring a distant Arc de triomphe.
 
Eça de Queiroz – also (particularly in modern Portuguese) written Eça de Queirós – is noted for his naturalist novels and for introducing naturalism into Portuguese literature. He is sometimes called the Portuguese Zola, although Flaubert was probably a bigger influence on him, and Zola himself even rated him above Flaubert.

'EÇA DE QUEIROZ, CONSUL DU PORTUGAL
À PARIS, EST MORT À NEUILLY-SUR-SEINE
LE 16 AOÛT 1900

SCULPTURE DE ANTÓNIO TEIXEIRA LOPES
SELON UNE ÉTUDE DE 1903

OFFERTE PAR LA MAIRIE DE LISBONNE
EN PARTENARIAT AVEC
L'AMBASSADE DU PORTUGAL À PARIS
2004'
 
Eça de Queiroz first worked as the Portuguese consul in Paris in 1888. Although he died in Neuilly, he was buried in Portugal.

Samuel Rogers in Hornsey

The tomb of the poet Samuel Rogers (1763–1855), where he joined his brother Henry and his sister Sarah in the churchyard at St Mary's, Hornsey. The inscription on the tomb notes that he was the author of 'The Pleasures of Memory'.
 
Below is a link to an online book of his poems:

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The Poems of Samuel Rogers, with a Memoir (1850)

Alexander Pope in Chiswick

'ALEXANDER
POPE
1688–1744
Poet
lived in this row,
Mawson's Buildings
1716–1719'
 
The building the plaque is on is now a pub, although for some reason I shot it at a very bad angle. 
 
And the pub has two names – the Mawson Arms and the Fox and Hounds, as there were once two pubs on the site. The above plaque says that Pope lived here with his parents from 1716 to 1719, although Pope's father died in 1717.
 
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Alexander Pope's Grotto in Twickenham
Alexander Pope in St Marys Church, Twickenham
Alexander Pope in Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire
Anthony Beckles Willson: Mr Pope & others at Cross Deep

Van Gogh in Isleworth, Hounslow

Twickenham Road, Isleworth, Hounslow.

'VINCENT
VAN GOGH
the famous painter,
lived here in
1876'
 
At the age of 23, Van Gogh taught at the non-conformist minister Reverend Slade-Jones's school, Holme Court House in Isleworth.

The Horniman Museum, Forest Hill, Lewisham

'THE
HORNIMAN
MUSEUM
AND GARDENS
WERE GIVEN TO
THE PEOPLE OF LONDON
IN 1901 BY
FREDERICK JOHN
HORNIMAN
WHO LIVED NEAR
THIS SITE'
 
Frederick John Horniman (1835–1906) inherited his father John Horniman's firm, which towards the end of the 19th century was the largest tea business in the world. Frederick travelled the world collecting various specimens of natural history or cultural objects, his stated purpose being to 'bring the world to Forest Hill'.
 
The mosaic is Humanity in the House of Circumstance, designed by Robert Anning Bell. From the left, the figures represent Art, Poetry, Music, and Endurance; the central figure represents Humanity, with Love on the left and Hope on the right; then come Charity, Wisdom, Meditation (seated), and Resignation. The door on the left represents Birth, the door on the right Death.
 
The museum, in the Arts and Crafts style, was built by Charles Harrison Townsend, who also designed the Bishopsgate Institute and the Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Just an indication of the size of the place.
 
The Conservatory.
 
(As a point of interest, Annie Horniman (1860–1937), the daughter of Frederick and Rebekah (née Elmslie) Horniman, founded the Gaiety Theatre in Manchester, noted for what became known as the Manchester School of playwrights (e.g. Harold Brighouse, Stanley Houghton, Allan Monkhouse, etc).)

29 October 2013

Highgate Cemetery (West) #5: Jacob Bronowski

'JACOB BRONOWSKI
1908–1974
RITA BRONOWSKI
1917–2010'
 
Polymath Jacob Bronowski is perhaps best remembered for his BBC TV series of 1973, The Ascent of Man, and the book of the same name, the title an obvious allusion to Darwin's The Descent of Man (1871).

Highgate Cemetery (West) #4: Frederick Tennyson

'SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
FREDERICK TENNYSON,
POET AND SCHOLAR,
BORN AT LOUTH, LINCOLNSHIRE,
JUNE 15th 1807,
DIED AT KENSINGTON, LONDON,
FEBRUARY 26 th 1898,
IN HIS 91st YEAR.
ERECTED BY HIS ELDEST SON
JULIUS GEORGE TENNYSON,
IN TOKEN OF AFFECTION.'
 
Frederick Tennyson was an elder brother of Alfred who was temporarily expelled from Cambridge University for refusing to accept punishment for not attending chapel. He lived in Florence for twenty years and was heavily influenced by Swedenborg.

Highgate Cemetery (West) #3: Beryl Bainbridge

'BERYL
BAINBRIDGE
DBE
1932–2010
WRITER
LOVED AND MISSED'

Highgate Cemetery (West) #2: Ellen Wood

Ellen Wood (1814–87), who used to write under the self-effacing name of Mrs Henry Wood, is best known for her novel East Lynne (1861). She lived with her husband and family in France for twenty years, returning on the failure of her husband's business. In London, she supported her family on the profits of her many novels.

Below is a link to many of her works:

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Ellen Wood novels

Highgate Cemetery (West) #1: Radclyffe Hall

Unfortunately, admission to West Cemetery is by guided tour only, which means that you're at the mercy of the guide, and that (at least on the occasion when I went this August) could well mean that you'll be subjected to the predictable: the 'menagerist' George Wombwell, the boxer Tom Sayers, etc. If the guide isn't interested in literature, as ours obviously wasn't – then there'll not even be a mention of Christina Rossetti, let alone Radclyffe Hall or Ellen Wood. Which isn't good enough for me, so it was fortunate that I'd done some online research before, and had worked out that we'd be passing by the last two authors at least. In the end, I was surprised to find the number of graves I did find – but in spite of, rather than because of – the guide. 

The Egyptian Avenue, leading on to the Circle of Lebanon.
 
 
 
Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) is probably most well known for her 'lesbian' novel The Well of Loneliness (1928), which was the subject of a court case. She lived with the singer Mabel Veronica Batten from her husband's death until Batten's own death in 1916.

'RADCLYFFE HALL
1943
...AND, IF GOD CHOOSE,
I SHALL BUT LOVE THEE BETTER
AFTER DEATH.
UNA.'
 
Batten's cousin Una Troubridge (1887–1963) was a sculptor and translator (notably of Colette) who lived with Hall from 1917.

Pierre Petit: Molinier, une vie d'enfer (1992)

'Ci-gît
Pierre MOLINIER
né le 13 avril 1900 mort vers 1950
ce fut un homme sans moralité
il s'en fit gloire et honneur
Inutile
de
P.P.L'

This epitaph, on a simple wooden cross, which notes the death of a man 'of no morality' who revelled in the fact, and declares that it is 'pointless to pray for him', was in fact not only written by the artist and photographer Pierre Molinier himself, but written and erected many years before his death, which was in 1976. But I think the words on his cross tell us a lot about him.

This biography by Pierre Petit of Auckland University is a very scholarly work containing footnotes, details of his exhibitions and paintings exhibited, and a Bibliography. The only thing missing is an Index, which would of course have been useful.

There's something amusing, because ironic, about Molinier's description of himself as without morality, because this is more the way he saw how others saw him than how he saw himself: he was thoroughly against convention. Indeed, from Petit's fascinating account – which for a few readers is perhaps literally difficult to stomach – the sex-obsessed artist had little comprehension of morality in this area: emphatically, in terms of sexual behaviour that gratified the self but didn't harm others, then pretty much anything was par for the course. But Molinier did hurt his wife emotionally by bringing his girlfriends home for instance, and it's hardly surprising that she left him.

Molinier spent almost all of his life in Bordeaux, although he lived in Agen about 90 miles east during his childhood and early youth. There, his father was a painter and decorator of houses and his mother a dressmaker who ran her business on the ground floor of their house. When Molinier was about three he'd delight in settling himself under the work table and caressing the legs and thighs of his mother's employees: he loved stockings and suspenders and the lower parts of a woman's body, and it's easy to imagine that it is from these early experiences that his obsession with these clothes and body parts became a strong feature of his professional life – all the photos he took of himself and women in stockings and suspenders, the naked flesh in his paintings, etc.

Molinier first had sex with a woman at the age of twelve. He had already fallen in love with his sister – he particularly adored her legs – and although there is no question of incest when she was living, she died of Spanish flu when he was 18 and he locked himself in the room containing her coffin and masturbated on her belly: he even took a photo of it.

For some years Molinier's paintings were shown at a number of exhibitions at the Salon des Artistes Indépendents Bordelais, until the inevitable rift when his paintings became perceived as too risqué. André Breton became a great admirer of Moliner's surrealism and was responsible for a number of Molinier's paintings being shown in Paris, but although there was never any rift this time (even when Molinier told Breton that he was opening a brothel in Bordeaux), Breton certainly maintained a distance between himself and Molinier.

A major event in Molinier's later life was when he fell in love with the married 'Emmanuelle Arsan' (Marayat Rollet-Andriane, who later became famous for the soft porn Emmanuelle novels), who also fell in love with Molinier, and even met him and posed naked for his photos, although this was a platonic love and any sex was on the level of pure fantasy.

Later, Molinier met the much younger Hanel, who also posed naked for him, and this relationship was decidedly sexual. Molinier believed photography was more difficult than painting, and made photomontages, one being a graft of the artist's much younger, made-up face onto Hanel's body clad in just stockings, suspenders and high-heeled shoes.

In one erotic painting, La Communion d'amour (1971), in which two naked (but oddly fused in parts) women (with the heads of Emmanuelle and Hanel) French kiss, there is a surplus of hands, although two of them are tweaking the two visible nipples, and another is inserting a dildo into a vagina.

A confusion of writhing bodies isn't unusual with Molinier, and the painting that most offended people's sensibilities is Oh! Marie...Mère de Dieu (1965), a crucifixion scene in which the man is being fellated by a woman and (it appears) being sodomised by another dildo-wielding woman. Molinier (a mischievous atheist) had an idea of sending this to the Pope.

As the artist grew older his external sexual outlets inevitably became more limited, although he bought dolls and (although he perhaps only once had a one-off homosexual relationship) delighted in sodomising himself with a dildo. He even invented a device for auto-fellation, of which of course a photo exists. (Auto-erotic asphyxiation isn't mentioned, and it is quite possible that Molinier wasn't aware of the practice, otherwise he might have died much earlier.)

Molinier always used a condom: in fact he mixed his sperm in with the paintings, meaning that they were truly erotic, that he had given a great deal of himself in them. He fed his beloved cats the left-over sperm.

Another of Molinier's interests was firearms, so when life became too much for him he had a relatively easy (or at least very quick) escape route. After arranging things as neatly as possible, Molinier lay in bed and fired a bullet through his skull. He left his body to medical science, although it is not known if (as he had once said he intended) he left the world in gaudily painted finger and toe nails.

Bordeaux recently showed an exhibition of Pierre Molinier's work, and there is even a rumour that a city square will be named after him. If so, this would mean that Molinier would join the other three Ms honoured there: Montaigne, Montesquieu and Mauriac.

26 October 2013

Frédéric Beigbeder: Premier bilan après l'apocalypse (2011)

Before Premier bilan après l'apocalypse exploded on my consciousness, I'd only read two of Frédéric Beigbeder's novels: Mémoires d'un Jeune Homme Dérangé (1990) and 99 Francs (2000), both of which I've commented on before on this blog, and both of which I link below.

But Premier bilan is quite something else, and it's difficult to express how much I enjoyed this outrageously self-opinionated, repetitive, wholly original, quirky, bizarre, immensely informative, infuriating, moving, contemptible, cliquish, and quite brilliant book written with both deep sincerity and tongue firmly in cheek.

Beigbeder obviously has deep concerns for the future of the book: not so much that it will be consumed in the flames of a Ray Bradbury-style dystopian Fahrenheit 451, but that we shall move into a paperless society in which print be only be in the form of the virtual word, with no sense of touch or smell, etc, and whose technology may even destroy our literary heritage.

So, here are one hundred books from the (essentially late half of the) 20th century (and just a few more immediately before and after that century) that Beigbeder believes must be saved. As Beigbeder is French it is unsurprising that more than 50% of these books are in that language, and as he has connections with the USA it is unsurprising that more than 25% of the books are of American origin. But barely 10% of the books are by female authors, which would appear to suggest an unfortunate male bias. (Maybe he can be excused just this once.)

It would be churlish (even ignorant) of me to even attempt to mention (in mock anger) the number and quality of the writers Beigbeder has excluded here: this is an idiosyncratic list, a list of those books he loves and considers worthy of survival, and not a list of those works he personally thinks are, er, great works in themselves (if that has any meaning).

But the strength of this book is that it is idiosyncratic, even a little insane – Beigbeder, for instance, includes in his hundred books an album by French rock band Téléphone and contrives to make his number 69 by the very sexually-oriented San-Antonio (OK, Frédéric Dard), the book of choice (En avant la moujik!) being published in the 'année érotique' of 1969. Furthermore, as I'm far from being a fan of much of what passes for good contemporary English literature (by which I mean that produced by English nationals), I am very pleased to find that only five of the 100 entries are by English writers, and that two of those entries are books by J. G. Ballard, whom Beigbeder rates higher than the usual tedious suspects he dismissively mentions: David Lodge, Ian McEwan, Jonathan Coe, and Julian Barnes.1

I am delighted to note that Beigbeder includes the glorious Jean Rhys, who was born in Dominica to a Welsh father and a white Creole mother of Scottish ancestry; the fact that the chosen book isn't the usual (and atypical of Rhys's better work) Wide Sargasso Sea but Good Morning, Midnight (1939) shows that he knows what he's talking about. But then, going for lesser known works (which are often better in quality and/or are far more interesting) is Beigbeder's forte.

 Premier bilan is no conventional trip through the memory lane of its writer, but a genuine attempt to pinpoint some of missing elements in the conventional lists of 'best' books. As such, it often mentions obscure works, even, perhaps, a few that are almost impossible to find without spending far more than idle curiosity would allow for (such as Alain Pacadis's Un jeune homme chic (1978)). But others are much more accessible (at least for buying online but not necessarily from the point of view of readability), such as Rose poussière (1972) by Jean-Jacques Schuhl. And then there are Les Couleurs de l'infamie by Albert Cossery, Brèves de comptoir by Jean-Marie Gourio and Autoportrait by Edouard Levé.

This is a book I shall consult again and again, just dipping into it, discovering (I'm sure) much more each time.

Premier bilan is an infuriating delight – wouldn't anyone be infuriated by someone trying to convince you that writers such as Bret Easton Ellis  or Jay McInerney are way up there among the best in the world? – but it's the way that he says it. And he says things so well (if in a slightly exaggerated fashion). (Smiley definitely required there.)

I'll translate a few gems:

'As with all of [Cossery's] books, he praises laziness, condemns the rich with their possessions, and only respects beggars, outsiders, the poor. For him, these are the only free humans. [...] [L]et's stop classing the unemployed as handicapped when they are gods!'

'...celebrity, the new opium of the people...'

'[Ned Roram's] most beautiful sentences are those which we don't completely understand but feel deeply: they are addressed to the soul more than the head.'

'The film Breakfast at Tiffanys was absolutely charming but all the same it was an act of high treason. [Blake Edwards] turned a satire that could have been called 'The Fall of an Escort Girl' into a romantic moral comedy.'

'[Guillaume] Dustan cleverly synthesises the four most modern strands of contemporary literature: new realism (Houellebecq / Ravelec / Despentes), autofiction (Donner / Angot / Doubrovsky), experimental 'dandy rock' writing (Schuhl / Pacadis / Adrien),  and gay porn (Renaud Camus / Hervé Guilbert / Vincent Borel).'

'When I was an adolescent – I still am, but no matter...' (Beigbeder was 48 when this book was published.)

Beigbeder knows a great deal about literature, he loves it, he's immensely pretentious (that's one of his great strengths: he's a joker), he's still way too laddish, he'll never grow up (also one of his greatest strengths), but after reading Premier bilan I wanted to ring him up and talk about this book (that's a reference to something he says) because I loved it, because of its brilliance and because of its superb arrogance. Beigbeder has a self-deprecation which, paradoxically, can only come from conviction of his great worth. No, of course I don't take this book seriously: it's too vital for that.

Another translation of mine from this book:

'I'm frightened of LSD (I've often been offered it but never wanted to try it). I don't sleep with minors (that's bad). But I love it when books allow me to know things I don't have a knowledge of.'

That, of course, is what reading should be all about. This is a human, wonderful – and wonderfully annoying – book. It easily makes my one hundred, all-time list.

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1 In Coe's defence, he wrote a brilliant biography of B. S. Johnson; Barnes's interest in Félix Fénéon and Alphonse Daudet are to be commended; Lodge is very good when talking about modernism; but McEwan, er... but then isn't he a friend of the dreadful Martin Amis?2

2 I noticed Philippe Djian (Beigbeder's number 18 with Maudit ménage  and 95 with Clémence Picot) says (with apparent glee) in a magazine somewhere that the semi-colon is dead; oh no it's not.

My other Beigbeder posts:

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Frédéric Beigbeder: Mémoires d'un Jeune Homme Dérangé
Frédéric Beigbeder: 99 Francs
Frédéric Beigbeder: Un roman français
Frédéric Beigbeder: L'Amour dure trois ans | Love Lasts Three Years
Frédéric Beigbeder: Vacances dans le coma