Acknowledgments
Preface
“Snow in French and English”
Yves Bonnefoy
Translated by Emily Grosholz
Début et fin de la neige/ Beginning and End of the Snow
La grande neige / The Great Snowfall
Première neige tôt ce matin / First snowfall, early this
morning
Le miroir / The Mirror
La charrue / The Plough
Le peu d’eau / Spot of Water
Neige / Snow
La Vierge de miséricorde /Our Lady of Mercy
Le jardin / The Garden
Les pommes / The Apples
L’été encore / Still Summer
On dirait beaucoup d’e muets /One might say, a flurry of silent
e’s
Flocons / Snowflakes
De natura rerum / De Natura Rerum
La parure / The Gown
Noli me tangere / Noli Me Tangere
Juste avant l’aube / Just Before Dawn
Les Flambeaux / The Torches
Hopkins Forest / Hopkins Forest
Le Tout, Le Rien / Everything, Nothing
La Seule Rose / The Only Rose
Là où retombe la flèche / Where the Arrow Falls
Afterword
“Song, Rain, Snow: Translating the
Poetry of Yves Bonnefoy,”
Emily Grosholz
Yves Bonnefoy is often described as the greatest French post-war
poet. Trained as a philosopher, he is also an essayist, literary
critic and art historian. In 1981, he succeeded Roland Barthes at
the Collège de France in Paris. He is the author of ten books of
poetry, most recently L’heure présente, as well as numerous works
on art, history and poetry. His many honors include Canada’s
Griffin Poetry Prize (2011).
Emily Grosholz is Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy at
the Pennsylvania State University, and a member of the research
group REHELS / SPHERE at the University of Paris Denis Diderot. She
is the author of six books of poetry (including Leaves / Feuilles
with Farhad Ostovani) and an advisory editor for the Hudson Review.
This outwardly slight, paperbound volume opens to reveal an
uncommon abundance: a series of exquisite poems by one of the most
important poets in France today deftly rendered into English by a
poet known for her delicate touch; an eloquent essay by Yves
Bonnefoy himself, demonstrating his skill as a literary critic as
well as a poet; and a charmingly direct meditation by the
translator, Emily Grosholz, about her effort to create English
equivalents of two Bonnefoy poems. As if that weren’t enough, there
is the further pleasure of beautiful visual art in the evocative
drawings of Iranian artist Farhad Ostovani that accompany the
text.
*World Literature Today*
It's not easy to capture simplicity. It's a matter of meanings,
tone, but also of rhythm and sounds, that are necessarily different
sounds in the other language. ... This is a superb book; one reads
it without the least twinge of regret for what might be lost in
translation. With half a dozen watercolour landscapes by the
Iranian artist Farhad Ostovani, Snow is also a pleasure to look
at.
*Criticism & Reference*
Emily Grosholz, both poet and philosopher, has accompanied Début et
Fin dela neige with an exquisite English translation, and her great
fellow-poet Yves Bonnefoy has prefaced poems and translation with a
delectable essay on “Snow" in French and English.
*Richard Wilbur*
Yves Bonnefoy is without doubt the most important French poet alive
today. This series of poems is extraordinarily beautiful, and the
translation by Emily Grosholz is excellent. It captures the
delicacy and loveliness of the snowflakes, as well as the
directness of the arrow.
*Mary Ann Caws*
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