Winds

by Saint-John Perse

Vents és un gran poema de to èpic, escrit en versicles i en un llenguatge de simbologia exuberant, en què s'entrecreuen diverses veus narratives. S'hi reflecteix l'epopeia de la humanitat en la seva agitada marxa cap a un nou món, vers el Ponent, des de la perspectiva del gran trasbals que comportà la Segona Guerra Mundial. Vents en mostra l'actualitat i una nova lectura des d'una doble la del context actual de la mundialització i la del text que arriba a unes formulacions sintàctiques i discursives paral·leles a les sorgides dels plantejaments estilístics del darrer terç del segle XX.Saint John-Perse és el pseudònim literari d'Alexis Saint-Leger Leger (1887-1975), escriptor, i diplomàtic, enfrontat al govern de Vichy i exiliat als Estats Units fins al 1957. Allà va desenvolupar la part central de la seva obra, que li valgué el Nobel de literatura el 1960.

202 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 1968

About the author

Works of French poet and diplomat Alexis Saint-Léger Léger under pen name of Saint-John Perse include Anabase (1924) and Chronique (1960); he won the Nobel Prize of 1960 for literature.

He came from an old Bourguignon family, which settled in the Antilles in the 17th century and returned at the end of the 19th century.

Perse studied law at Bordeaux and, after private studies in political science, went into the service in 1914. A brilliant career ensued. He served first in the embassy at Peking. People published his work chiefly under the pseudonyms. After various reflections on the impressions of his childhood, he wrote in China. An epic puzzled many critics and gave rise to the suggestion that an Asian ably understands it better than by a westerner.

He later in the foreign office held top positions under Aristide Briand as its administrative head.

He left for the United States in 1940, and the regime at Vichy deprived him of his citizenship and possessions. From 1941 to 1945, he served as adviser to the Library of Congress. After the war, he resumed not his career and in 1950 retired officially with the title of ambassador. He made the United States his permanent residence.

After he settled in the United States, he wrote much of his work. Exil (Exile) (1942) fully masters man, merge, imagery, and diction.
* Poème l'Etrangère (Poem to a Foreign Lady), 1943;
* Pluies (Rains) (1943);
* Neiges (Snows) (1944);
* Vents (Winds) (1946) of war and peace blow well within and outside man;
* In Amers (Seamarks) (1957), the sea redounds as an image of the timelessness of man.
His abstract epic followed.

People awarded him "for the soaring flight and the evocative imagery of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time."