The Book of Dialogue

by Edmond Jabès, Rosmarie Waldrop (Translator)

Poems make use of aphorisms, meditation, narrative, and questions to consider the nature of God, silence, death, and human relationships

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Edmond Jabes was a major voice in French poetry in the latter half of this century. An Egyptian Jew, he was haunted by the question of place and the loss of place in relation to writing, and he was one of the most significant thinkers of what one might call poetical alienation. He focused on the space of the book, seeing it as the true space in which exile and the promised land meet in poetry and in question. (This is summarized from the reader's description in A New History of French Literature, ed. Denis Hollier.) Very many of Jabes's books of prose and poetry have been translated into English, including The Book of Dialogue ( Wesleyan, 1987) and The Book of Margins (Chicago, 1993), both translated by Rosmarie Waldrop.

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Then God's eternity in the text would only be the space between one letter and the next."

"Fracture is perhaps the origin of eternity."

"There is no return to God. God is ahead."

God said to the angels "without man you & I would not exist."