L'Arrière-pays - Softcover

Bonnefoy, Yves

Softcover

ISBN 10: 2070319385 ISBN 13: 9782070319381

Publisher: GALLIMARD, 2005

Synopsis

Since the publication of his first book in 1953, Yves Bonnefoy has become one of the most important French poets of the postwar years. At last, we have the long-awaited English translation of Yves Bonnefoy's celebrated work, "L'Arriere-pays," which takes us to the heart of his creative process and to the very core of his poetic spirit. In his poem, "The Convex Mirror," Bonnefoy writes: "Look at them down there, at that crossroads, / They seem to hesitate, then go on." The idea of the crossroads haunts Bonnefoy's work, as he is troubled by the idea that the path not taken may lead to the "arriere-pays," a place of greater plenitude, and of more authentic being--an "elsewhere in the absolute." Seized by this fear that what he terms "presence" exists always somewhere else, a little further on, Bonnefoy here sets out on a labyrinthine quest to find traces of this "original place," which he locates not only in objects of knowledge and experience as diverse as the deserts of Asia, a hill fort in India, a church in Armenia, the painting of Piero della Francesca but also, crucially, in the undivided intensity of his experiences as a child. Written with a visionary grace, "The Arriere-pays" is a spiritual testament to art, philosophy, and poetry. Enriched by a new preface by the poet, this volume also includes three recent essays in which he returns to his original account of an ethical and aesthetic haunting, one that recounts the struggle between our instinct to idealize--what he deems our eternal Platonism--and the equally strong need to combat this and to be reconciled with our nature as finite beings, made of flesh and blood, in the world of the here and now.

About this title

About the Author

Yves Bonnefoy is a poet, critic and professor emeritus of comparative poetics at the College de France. In addition to poetry and literary criticism, he has published numerous works of art history and translated into French several of Shakespeare's plays. Stephen Romer is maitre de conferences at the University of Tours. A poet and critic, he has published four original collections and two anthologies of modern French poetry in translation.

Language Notes

Text: French

Edition details

• Publisher: GALLIMARD
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 2070319385
• ISBN 13: 9782070319381
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: French
• Number of pages: 192