Synopsis
Break of Noon (Partage de midi) is a collaborative attempt, edited by Anthony Rudolf, at preparing an English-language edition of Paul Claudel's remarkable and complex play, an unstable text which gave Claudel many problems throughout his life. These are explored in essays by David Furlong of Exchange Theatre in London, which put on a production of the play in 2018 and John Naughton, a leading authority on Claudel. The critical apparatus is completed by the late Susannah York's essay on her own involvement with the play and recounts her interaction with her fellow translator, Jonathan Griffin. The instability of this strange and compelling work in its various original versions is mirrored by the three critical essays in the present work, which do not always see eye to eye. It is thirty years since Jonathan Griffin died and nearly fifty years since Pierre Rouve's Ipswich production of Jonathan's translation, starring Ben Kingsley and Annie Firbank.
About the Authors
Paul Claudel (1868-1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. A devout Catholic, he was best-known for his verse dramas. He was born, in the Aisne département, into a family of farmers and government officials. His father was a financier, while his mother came from a family of farmers and priests. An unbeliever in his teenage years, Paul experienced a sudden conversion at the age of eighteen on Christmas Day 1886 while listening to a choir sing Vespers in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. He would remain an active Catholic for the rest of his life. As a young man, Claudel seriously considered entering a monastery, but in the end took up a post in the diplomatic corps, in which he would serve from 1893 to 1936. He was first vice-consul in New York, and later in Boston; French consul in various cities in China (1895-1909); then later in Prague, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Rome. He was Minister Plenipotentiary in Rio de Janeiro, and then Copenhagen (1920); ambassador in Tokyo (1921-1927), Washington, D.C. (1928-1933) and Brussels (1933-1936). In 1936 he retired.Due to his position in the Diplomatic Corps, during his early career Claudel published either anonymously or under a pseudonym. This led to him remaining obscure figure until the editors of the Nouvelle Revue Française recognised his work and began collaborating with him.The best-known of his plays are Le Partage de midi (1906), L'Annonce faite à Marie (1910), and Le Soulier de satin (1931). He also wrote the text for Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher (1939), Honegger's 'opera-oratorio'. In addition to the verse dramas, Claudel also wrote a substantial corpus of lyric poetry.
Jonathan Griffin (1906-1990) was Director of BBC European Intelligence during the war followed by a stint as cultural attaché in Paris. He then became a playwright, poet and professional translator from the French and Portuguese.
Anthony Rudolf, writer and translator, is founder of the now dormant Menard Press, and has collaborated with John Naughton on several books of translations of Yves Bonnefoy's poetry and prose.
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