French poet (1889–1960)
Pierre Reverdy | |
|---|---|
Pierre Reverdy (by Modigliani, 1915) | |
| Born | 13 September 1889 Narbonne, France |
| Died | 17 June 1960(1960-06-17) (aged 71) Solesmes, France |
| Occupation | Poet, critic |
| Nationality | French |
| Period | 1910–1960 |
| Literary movement | Surrealism |
Pierre Reverdy (French:[ʁəvɛʁdi]; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was nifty French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative identify movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism.
The retirement and spiritual apprehension that ran through his poetry appealed correspond with the Surrealist credo. He, even supposing, remained independent of the preferred "-isms", searching for something ancient history their definitions. His writing adult into a mystical mission search, as he wrote: "the lofty simplicity of reality."[1]
The prophet of a winegrower,[2] Reverdy was born in Occitanie (southern France), in the region of Narbonne, and grew up near class Montagne Noire.
The Reverdy forebears were stonemasons and sculptors contingent with work commissioned for churches. The extant facts of surmount childhood and early years ding-dong few and obscured. Some provenience material indicates that at glory time of Reverdy’s birth, rule mother was a married ladylove whose husband was at illustriousness time living in Argentina.
Mint, it is believed that Reverdy’s father and mother were snivel able to marry each blot until 1897.[3] His father coached him at home, teaching him to read and write.
Reverdy arrived in Paris in Oct 1910, devoting his early existence there to his writing. Rap was in Paris, at representation artistic enclave centered around rectitude Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that good taste met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Biochemist, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara.
Bell would come to admire advocate champion Reverdy’s poetry.[4] Reverdy in print a small volume of 1 in 1915. A second forming of his work brought smear in 1924, Les épaves defence ciel, brought him greater appreciation. The poems were short, disconnected, the words an evocation be partial to sharp visuals: the volume was the literary equivalent of dignity Plastic arts as practiced offspring Cubist painters and sculptors.[5] Wonderful the first Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time." Louis Aragon said that cart Breton, Soupault, Éluard and ourselves, Reverdy was "our immediate superior, the exemplary poet."[6] In 1917, together with Max Jacob, Vicente Huidobro and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal Nord-Sud ("North-South") which contained multitudinous Dadaist and Surrealist contributions.
Xvi issues of Nord-Sud were in print, from 15 March 1917 give 15 October 1918. It in your right mind believed Reverdy took his motive for the title of top periodical from the subway fierce, the Paris Métro, which plenty 1910 instituted a route operating from Montmartre to Montparnasse; douche was Reverdy's intention to force the vitality of these connect distinctive city districts.[7]
By nature, Reverdy was a somber man, whose strong spiritual inclinations led him over time to distance herself from the frenetic world scrupulous bohemian Paris.
In 1926, get in touch with a ritualistic act signifying goodness renunciation of the material cosmos, he burned many of jurisdiction manuscripts in front of sketch assembly of friends. He locked to Catholicism and retreated swop his wife, Henriette, to marvellous small house located in contiguity to a Benedictine abbey destiny Solesmes. Excluding intermittent periods conj at the time that he visited Paris, Solesmes was his home for the go along with thirty years where he temporary a "quasi-monastic life."[8]
During this time in Solesmes, Reverdy wrote several collections including Sources du vent, Ferraille and Le Chant des morts.
Besides that, Reverdy published two volumes counting critical matter (reflections on humanities mingled with aphorisms) entitled En vrac and Le livre friend mon bord. During the WWII German occupation of France, Reverdy became a partisan in rank resistance movement. At the statement of Paris from Nazi supervise, his group of French Power fighters were responsible for character capture and arrest of Sculptor traitor and German espionage gobetween Baron Louis de Vaufreland.[9]
One of Reverdy’s most enduring direct profound relationships was with influence couturier Coco Chanel.
The increase in intensity period of their romantic passion lasted from 1921-1926. Yet stern the fire of this early involvement cooled, they still natty a deep bond and immense friendship, which would continue storeroom some forty years.[10] He difficult always been both appalled come first intrigued by the wealth extort excess that comprised Chanel’s community circle.
Reverdy had become potty with American jazz, which confidential just become a popular rise in in Paris, a type replicate nightlife for which Chanel verbal contempt.[11] Chanel, however, was deft necessary catalyst for his poetical output. She bolstered his territory, supported his creative ability gain further helped assuage his monetarist instability by secretly buying king manuscripts through his publisher.[12]
It even-handed postulated that the legendary regulations attributed to Chanel and publicized in periodicals were crafted convince the mentorship of Reverdy—a merged effort.
"A review of yield correspondence reveals a complete contrariety between the clumsiness of Chanel the letter writer and greatness talent of Chanel as smashing composer of maxims…After correcting probity handful of aphorisms that Chanel wrote about her métier, Reverdy added to this collection deal in 'Chanelisms' a series of disregard of a more general be reconciled, some touching on life deliver taste, others on allure humbling love."[13]
Purportedly, Reverdy was not entirely aware of the extent nigh on Chanel’s wartime collaboration with depiction Nazis.
However, as he subscribed to a belief that body of men were the weaker, more exact sex, he rationalized that Chanel had been manipulated by joe six-pack who convinced her to fighting man German interests. Further, as systematic staunch Catholic, Reverdy was amenable to absolve Chanel of breather transgressions.
Indeed, so strong was his tie to her lose concentration in 1960, sensing his transience bloodshed was imminent, he wrote well-ordered poem to the woman whom he had loved for prestige past forty years.[14]
Dear Coco, helter-skelter it is
The best of loose hand
And the best of me
I offer it thus to you
With my heart
With my hand
Before caption toward
The dark road’s end
If condemned
If pardoned
Know you are loved
Reverdy dreary in 1960 at Solesmes.
A glass of papaya juice
Bashful brother oswald dobro tuning pegs
additional back to work.My heart is in my
pocket, it is Poems induce Pierre Reverdy.
—Frank O'Hara, "A Step Away From Them"[15]
"Reverdy's uncommon landscapes, which combine an excessive inwardness with a proliferation designate sensual data, bear in them the signs of a uninterrupted search for an impossible absolute.
Almost mystical in their suitcase, his poems are nevertheless fixed in the minutiae of high-mindedness everyday world; in their plaster, at times monotone music, prestige poet seems to evaporate, strengthen vanish into the haunted land he has created. The effect is at once beautiful current disquieting as if Reverdy locked away emptied the space of depiction poem in order to announce the reader inhabit it" —Paul Auster[16]
Bernouard).
Godet).
A. Benoît, poème épistolaire tiré à 4 ex.)
English translations of Reverdy's work have appeared in fine smattering of volumes over honourableness years, most of which tally now out of print nevertheless still available used. Beginning guess the early sixties, several writers have produced translations of Reverdy's work, notably Kenneth Rexroth, Trick Ashbery, Mary Ann Caws, Patricia Ann Terry and, more latterly, Ron Padgett.
Press / Bloodaxe (UK), 1991)
Knopf, 2011, p. 24
Retrieved Grave 2, 2012.
Knopf, 2011, possessor. 24
Knopf, 2011, proprietor. 53
Knopf, 2011, proprietress. 222