Hypnos Waking: Poetry and Prose

by René Char, Jackson Mathews

Rene Char is a Frenchman with a great, hulking frame (6 ft. 3 in.) and a jaw like a duck press. By almost unanimous consent of his countrymen, he is the greatest French poet of his time. Existentialist Author Albert Camus spoke for the French intelligentsia when he saluted Char as "the great poet for whom we have been waiting." But English-reading people must take a French poetic reputation, like the credentials of ambassadors, largely on trust. In this bilingual sampler of his work, U.S. readers will be able to decide for themselves that measure...

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

René Char spent his childhood in Névons, the substantial family home completed at his birth, then studied as a boarder at the school of Avignon and subsequently, in 1925, a student at L'École de Commerce de Marseille, where he read Plutarch, François Villon, Racine, the German Romantics, Alfred de Vigny, Gérard de Nerval and Charles Baudelaire.

His first book, Cloches sur le cœur was published in 1928 as a compilation of poems written between 1922 and 1926. In late November 1929, Char moved to Paris, where he met Louis Aragon, André Breton, and René Crevel, and joined the surrealists. He remained active in the surrealist movement through the early 1930s but distanced himself gradually from the mid-1930s onward. Throughout his career, Char's work appeared in various editions, often with artwork by notable figures, including Kandinsky, Picasso, Braque, Miró, Matisse and Vieira da Silva.

Char was a friend and close associate of Albert Camus, Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot among writers, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Braque and Victor Brauner among painters. He was to have been in the car involved in the accident that killed both Camus and Gallimard, but there was not enough room, and returned instead that day by train to Paris.

The composer Pierre Boulez wrote three settings of Char's poetry, Le Soleil des eaux, Le visage nuptial, and Le marteau sans maître. A late friendship developed also between Char and Martin Heidegger, who described Char's poetry as "a tour de force into the ineffable" and was repeatedly his guest at La Thor in the Vaucluse.

Reviews

[Keith Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the Char that first introduced the poet to an American audience, or introduced him at any length. It includes translations by William Carlos Williams and James Wright and many others, but the major work was done by the editor, Jackson Matthews. Many of the poems read very well (maybe a couple feel wrong to my ear) and are certainly useful cribs to the French.

This has all of Char's World War II masterpiece, "Leaves of Hypnos," and it makes a great introduction to the moral urgency that underlies so much of Char's work during and after the war. Unlike some French writers who claimed resistance, Char was a genuine hero, leading the Resistance in the south of France for several years. The small, aphorisms and images, observations and dreams, that make up this long poem, were written between the moments when Char sent his comrades out to kill or be killed. Char looks through terror to the faint indications of hope, but he is never easy about it.

This collection also allows for a career overview, at least up until its moment of publication (Char did some important work after this book was published). We move from early surrealism, through the war, to the relief that comes after. It becomes easy to understand how the aphorisms, images and obsessions, add up to a kind of personal wisdom. The poet may never actually trust that wisdom, but the reader can become convinced of the process.

I'm not sure how readily available this book is now. It might take some digging around in the used book stores, but it is definitely worth it.

[McKenzie Tozan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fantastic--charged, emotional, accelerated--as LEAVES OF HYPNOS, but there is a wider range in this collection (perhaps because it is essentially a SELECTED) that I really appreciated. Still something I'd like to own.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

You are illumination, you are night;
For your gaze this attic window,
For your weariness this plank,
This sip of water for your thirst,
The entire walls are for him to whom your brightness gives birth,
O prisoner, O bride!