Contes et légendes d'Irlande: Traduction et notes - Textes en prose - Tome 1

by W.B. Yeats, Sylvie Aubert (Translator)

"Contes et légendes d'Irlande" est la traduction originale de l'œuvre de William Butler Yeats, "Irish Fairy and Folk Tales", publiée en 1918. Ce volume représente le premier tiers de l'œuvre originale et ne propose que les textes en prose. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), poète irlandais, a été une figure importante de la littérature du XXe siècle. Avec d'autres écrivains, il a été l'un des instigateurs du renouveau de la littérature irlandaise. Il a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature en 1923. Nationaliste irlandais, il fut en 1922 élu sénateur de l'État libre d'Irlande (Seanad Éireann).Dans cet ouvrage, Yeats a choisi des histoires collectées par des folkloristes irlandais renommés, tels que T. Crofton Croker, Letitia MacLintock ou Douglas Hyde, au cours du XIXe siècle auprès de la population rurale d'Irlande. Certaines histoires remontent au XVIIIe siècle.Sont mis en scène dans ces contes le petit peuple tout-puissant, les lutins danseurs, les elfes musiciens, le Leprecaun et l'homme de la mer videurs de bouteilles, le macabre Far Darrig, le facétieux Pooka et l'effrayante Banshee. Ces histoires, glaçantes ou attendrissantes, nous déconcertent et nous font approcher l'envers du réel, nous faisant douter de la véracité de nos expériences quotidiennes. Traduction et notes de Sylvie Aubert.Tome 1 : Les esprits sociables ; changelins ; les merrows ou sirènes ; le lepracaun ; le far darrig ; le pooka ; la banshee.Tome 2 : Fantômes ; sorcières ; T'yeer-na-n-Oge ; Saints et prêtres ; le diable ; géants ; rois, reines, princesses, voleurs.

165 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2018

About the author

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia