Un ciel étranger

by Emily Dickinson, François Heusbourg (Translator)

Après Nous ne jouons pas sur les tombes (2015), qui présentait un choix de poèmes de l’année 1863 – la plus prolifique de l’auteur – et Ses oiseaux perdus (2017), qui se concentrait sur les 5 dernières années de sa vie (1882-1886), nous éditons aujourd’hui des poèmes écrits en 1864 par Emily Dickinson. Cette année-là, Dickinson, alors en pleine effervescence créatrice (850 poèmes composés entre 1862 et 1865), effectue un séjour long de 7 mois à Boston pour soigner ses yeux, ce qui réduit sa production poétique (98 poèmes recensés). Ce « ciel étranger » est donc celui de la grande ville, où Dickinson se sent comme une migrante, n’y trouvant pas sa place. Trop d’humains sûrement, elle qui préfère la compagnie des esprits, des livres et des lettres à celle trop bruyante des hommes. Quel est ce monde que nous habitons, destinés à en être les passagers, parfois clandestins, souvent anonymes, rarement célestes ? Dickinson s’adresse à ses mythes, aux êtres disparus, aux terres imaginaires. Elle ouvre des passages entre l’immortalité et la poussière, à travers le temps et les douleurs, cherche un endroit où l’écho de sa voix n’est pas la seule réponse. Elle semble invoquer, poème après poème, un compagnon à qui parler, qui ne serait ni un homme ni un dieu. Un soleil qui éclairerait toutes les surfaces de la terre, à rebours de notre nuit, avec tendresse et vérité.

Nous poursuivons avec Un ciel étranger notre édition des poèmes d’Emily Dickinson regroupés par années, ouvrant à une approche plus précise de cette œuvre jamais organisée en recueils, mettant au jour les thématiques constantes, les glissements et les impulsions d’une poète mystérieuse, bouleversante et insaisissable.

107 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Emily Dickinson was an American poet who, despite the fact that less than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime, is widely considered one of the most original and influential poets of the 19th century.

Dickinson was born to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life. After she studied at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she spent a short time at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's house in Amherst. Thought of as an eccentric by the locals, she became known for her penchant for white clothing and her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even leave her room. Most of her friendships were therefore carried out by correspondence.

Although Dickinson was a prolific private poet, fewer than a dozen of her nearly eighteen hundred poems were published during her lifetime.The work that was published during her lifetime was usually altered significantly by the publishers to fit the conventional poetic rules of the time. Dickinson's poems are unique for the era in which she wrote; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation.Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality, two recurring topics in letters to her friends.

Although most of her acquaintances were probably aware of Dickinson's writing, it was not until after her death in 1886—when Lavinia, Emily's younger sister, discovered her cache of poems—that the breadth of Dickinson's work became apparent. Her first collection of poetry was published in 1890 by personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, both of whom heavily edited the content.

A complete and mostly unaltered collection of her poetry became available for the first time in 1955 when The Poems of Emily Dickinson was published by scholar Thomas H. Johnson. Despite unfavorable reviews and skepticism of her literary prowess during the late 19th and early 20th century, critics now consider Dickinson to be a major American poet.

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Reviews

[Yoann Trudy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pas compris grand chose, je ne dois pas avoir un capital culturel assez élevé pour apprécier ça.