.. poetry doesn't spring forth
in a single bound from the depths
of one's mind and spirit, but
must free itself from various
obstacles that are a function
of the particular nature of lan-
guage or cultural tradition. For
someone like me, who wanted very
much to devote himself to poetry,
it was obviously important to un-
derstand this.
Of all the shabby obstacles to
which we are pressed to bow to-
day as Americans, the crushing
doctrine of originalism in Con-
stitutional interpretation con-
stitutes the stunningest proof
of the need for France as it
inched forth on this date, 1789.
Only a beginning, but the neces-
sary one en route to a humane
majesty. It is simply false to
sequester that destiny from the
hydraulic processes of language.
This is the distinction the trans-
lator Richard Howard observed in
the poetry of Yves Bonnefoy, be-
tween natural objects and natural
energies; and shall a document,
shall a life, be a moribund pile
of stone or a guest in the house?
Earth,
The cloth of the rain clung to you.
You were the breast
A painter might have dreamed.
Yves Bonnefoy
i Shakespeare and the French Poet
Interview with
John Naughton, editor
University of Chicago Press, 2004©
ii Summer Rain
[fragment]
Hoyt Rogers, translation
Cited in Charles Simic
The Renegade
George Braziller, 2009©
Ivan Terestchenko
tricouleur
Maxime Bergougnoux
photographer unknown
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