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Poems
Alain-Fournier’s poems, while relatively few, are one of the small pearls washed up in the maelstrom of early twentieth-century France. Best known for his novel Le Grand Meaulnes, a posthumous classic, Alain-Fournier was killed in battle in 1914. His poems suspend a pre-war French idyll of warm evenings and rained-on orchards, silk-banded straw hats, lamp-lit farmhouses – and young love reaching out ‘in the frightening dark, with timid fingers’. His lines fluoresce with the pain of memories which cannot be re-lived, and they combine elements of Symbolism, Impressionism and Imagism. The sun is an ambivalent force in these poetic narratives, which transform themselves as if they were dreams. The music of Debussy, the writings of Laforgue, and the paintings of Renoir can also be detected under the surface of Alain-Fournier’s verse, which is provided here in a comprehensive English translation for the first time.
97 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1924
55 people want to read
About the author
Alain-Fournier
58 books130 followersAlain-Fournier was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (1886 – 1914), a French author and soldier. He wrote a single novel, Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), which was adapted into two feature films and is considered a classic of French literature.
Alain-Fournier was born in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, in the Cher département, in central France, the son of a school teacher. He studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, where he prepared for the entrance examination to the École Normale Supérieure, but without success. He then studied at the merchant marine school in Brest. At the Lycée Lakanal he met Jacques Rivière, and the two became close friends. In 1909, Rivière married Alain-Fournier's younger sister Isabelle.
Alain-Fournier interrupted his studies in 1907 and from 1908 to 1909 he performed his military service. At this time he published some essays, poems and stories which were later collected and re-published under the name Miracles. Throughout this period he was mulling over what would become his celebrated novel, Le Grand Meaulnes.
On the first of June 1905, Ascension day, while Alain-Fournier was talking a stroll along banks of the Seine, he had met Yvonne de Quiévrecourt, with whom he became deeply enamoured. The two spoke, but he did not manage to win her favours. The following year on the same day he waited for her at the same place, but she did not appear. That night he told Rivière, "She did not come. And even if she had, she would not have been the same". They did not meet again until eight years later, when she was married with two children. Yvonne de Quiévrecourt would become Yvonne de Galais in his novel.
Alain-Fournier returned to Paris in 1910 and became a literary critic, writing for the Paris-Journal. There he met André Gide and Paul Claudel. In 1912, he quit his job to become the personal assistant of the politician Casimir Perrier.
'Le Grand Meaulnes' was finished in early 1913, and was first published in the Nouvelle Revue Française (from July to October 1913), and then as a book. 'Le Grand Meaulnes' was nominated for, but did not win, the Prix Goncourt. It is available in English in a widely-admired 1959 translation by Frank Davison for Oxford University Press.
In 1914, Alain-Fournier started work on a second novel, 'Colombe Blanchet', but this remained unfinished when he joined the army as a Lieutenant in August. He died fighting near Vaux-lès-Palameix (Meuse) one month later, on the 22nd of September 1914. His body remained unidentified until 1991, at which time he was interred in the cemetery of Saint-Remy-la-Calonne.
Most of the writing of Alain-Fournier was published posthumously: Miracles (a volume of poems and essays) in 1924, his correspondence with Jacques Rivière in 1926 and his letters to his family in 1930. His notes and sketches for Colombe Blanchet have also been published. From Wikipedia
Alain-Fournier was born in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, in the Cher département, in central France, the son of a school teacher. He studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, near Paris, where he prepared for the entrance examination to the École Normale Supérieure, but without success. He then studied at the merchant marine school in Brest. At the Lycée Lakanal he met Jacques Rivière, and the two became close friends. In 1909, Rivière married Alain-Fournier's younger sister Isabelle.
Alain-Fournier interrupted his studies in 1907 and from 1908 to 1909 he performed his military service. At this time he published some essays, poems and stories which were later collected and re-published under the name Miracles. Throughout this period he was mulling over what would become his celebrated novel, Le Grand Meaulnes.
On the first of June 1905, Ascension day, while Alain-Fournier was talking a stroll along banks of the Seine, he had met Yvonne de Quiévrecourt, with whom he became deeply enamoured. The two spoke, but he did not manage to win her favours. The following year on the same day he waited for her at the same place, but she did not appear. That night he told Rivière, "She did not come. And even if she had, she would not have been the same". They did not meet again until eight years later, when she was married with two children. Yvonne de Quiévrecourt would become Yvonne de Galais in his novel.
Alain-Fournier returned to Paris in 1910 and became a literary critic, writing for the Paris-Journal. There he met André Gide and Paul Claudel. In 1912, he quit his job to become the personal assistant of the politician Casimir Perrier.
'Le Grand Meaulnes' was finished in early 1913, and was first published in the Nouvelle Revue Française (from July to October 1913), and then as a book. 'Le Grand Meaulnes' was nominated for, but did not win, the Prix Goncourt. It is available in English in a widely-admired 1959 translation by Frank Davison for Oxford University Press.
In 1914, Alain-Fournier started work on a second novel, 'Colombe Blanchet', but this remained unfinished when he joined the army as a Lieutenant in August. He died fighting near Vaux-lès-Palameix (Meuse) one month later, on the 22nd of September 1914. His body remained unidentified until 1991, at which time he was interred in the cemetery of Saint-Remy-la-Calonne.
Most of the writing of Alain-Fournier was published posthumously: Miracles (a volume of poems and essays) in 1924, his correspondence with Jacques Rivière in 1926 and his letters to his family in 1930. His notes and sketches for Colombe Blanchet have also been published. From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 6, 2020
In his introduction, Anthony Costello says that Alain-Fournier's poems were rejected for publication during his lifetime as they were considered juvenile and unfashionably romantic and sentimental. As most of them were written in a period when the poet was between eighteen and nineteen years old, the juvenile tag was an easy label to fix onto him, however either I'm unnaturally juvenile (being in my fifties) or, as I hope is more correct, Alain-Fournier showed a maturity beyond his years.
As for romantic and sentimental, those aren't insults in my vocabulary, and Alain-Fournier's poetry is steeped in these qualities, with an aching nostalgia remarkable in one so young. That he should have died in the first month of WWI at the age of twenty-seven makes the nostalgic quality of his poems that much more poignant.
The poems are bathed in sunlight, amid flower-strewn fields and gardens, or infused with dusky, moonlit rain, gently playing against bedroom windows. There is love, unrequited and dreamed of, childhood scenes remembered with fondness and joy, and there are intimations of war, loss and grief. There are tragically few poems, but enough and of sufficient quality to know that the Great War wasted the potential of yet another young writer whose great promise was only partially realised.
The Notes on Translation by Anthony Costello, telling briefly of his relationship with co-translator, Anita Marsh, is touching and affectively in keeping with the tone of Alain-Fournier's poetry. His suggestion in the introduction to read the poems while listening to Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'aprés-midi d'un faune was well made, as it forms the perfect accompaniment to Alain-Fournier's verse.
This edition gives all the poems first in English translation, then in the original French, so it's possible for the English speaker to get the feel of Alain-Fournier's rhyme and metre even if (like myself) the translation is required for the meaning.
I'm definitely inspired to track down a copy of Alain-Fournier's prose work, The Lost Estate Le Grand Meaulnes
Edit: Reader, I did track down Le Grand Meaulnes, and it was wonderful!
As for romantic and sentimental, those aren't insults in my vocabulary, and Alain-Fournier's poetry is steeped in these qualities, with an aching nostalgia remarkable in one so young. That he should have died in the first month of WWI at the age of twenty-seven makes the nostalgic quality of his poems that much more poignant.
The poems are bathed in sunlight, amid flower-strewn fields and gardens, or infused with dusky, moonlit rain, gently playing against bedroom windows. There is love, unrequited and dreamed of, childhood scenes remembered with fondness and joy, and there are intimations of war, loss and grief. There are tragically few poems, but enough and of sufficient quality to know that the Great War wasted the potential of yet another young writer whose great promise was only partially realised.
The Notes on Translation by Anthony Costello, telling briefly of his relationship with co-translator, Anita Marsh, is touching and affectively in keeping with the tone of Alain-Fournier's poetry. His suggestion in the introduction to read the poems while listening to Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'aprés-midi d'un faune was well made, as it forms the perfect accompaniment to Alain-Fournier's verse.
This edition gives all the poems first in English translation, then in the original French, so it's possible for the English speaker to get the feel of Alain-Fournier's rhyme and metre even if (like myself) the translation is required for the meaning.
I'm definitely inspired to track down a copy of Alain-Fournier's prose work, The Lost Estate Le Grand Meaulnes
Edit: Reader, I did track down Le Grand Meaulnes, and it was wonderful!
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December 24, 2020I like to read French original copies in tandem with good translations to help me keep up my French knowledge. Obviously poetry as opposed to prose can leave a bit more to interpretation with its creative use of rhythm and scanning to transmit the creative ideas involved, but I had to resort to the old dictionary to check what was going adrift in my understanding. I prefer authentic straight renderings and to find some of the poems so far in places from the original made me want to give up.
I was using an old copy of Miracles actually signed by Jacque Rivière to feel nearer Fournier and to try to identify with his own writing, but in too many places I was left wondering why the poems had veered away from my reading. I have been trying to find Anita Marsh's word for word translation as mentioned in this book but have had no luck so far.
I was using an old copy of Miracles actually signed by Jacque Rivière to feel nearer Fournier and to try to identify with his own writing, but in too many places I was left wondering why the poems had veered away from my reading. I have been trying to find Anita Marsh's word for word translation as mentioned in this book but have had no luck so far.
August 27, 2020
Howells poetic licence to change Fourniers words to suit his own ideas, not translation, but an excuse to advertise or self promote his own name through a poet such as Fournier. Translate yourself to find the beauty of the words. This book is absolute rubbish. Fournier would have laughed at this translation .
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews