Contes et légendes d'Irlande: Textes en prose - Tome II

by W.B. Yeats

"Contes et légendes d'Irlande" est la traduction originale de l'œuvre de William Butler Yeats, "Irish Fairy and Folk Tales", publiée en 1918. Ce volume représente la seconde moitié de l'œuvre originale et ne propose que les textes en prose.William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), poète irlandais, a été une figure importante de la littérature du XXe siècle. Avec d'autres écrivains, il a été l'un des instigateurs du renouveau de la littérature irlandaise. Il a reçu le prix Nobel de littérature en 1923. Nationaliste irlandais, il fut en 1922 élu sénateur de l'État libre d'Irlande (Seanad Éireann).Dans cet ouvrage, Yeats a choisi des histoires collectées par des folkloristes irlandais renommés, tels que T. Crofton Croker, Letitia MacLintock ou Douglas Hyde, au cours du XIXe siècle auprès de la population rurale d'Irlande. Certaines histoires remontent au XVIIIe siècle.Nous rencontrons les sorcières aux pouvoirs maléfiques, les docteurs des fées aux pouvoirs bénéfiques, les danseurs de gigue et de "hornpipe", un mariage inter-religieux qui prend des proportions imprévues, le fameux O'Donoghue qui réside à Tir-na-n-Og ; et encore des saints et des prêtres, le diable et ceux qui le défient, des géants pleins de ressources, et enfin des rois, des reines, des princesses, des ducs et des voleurs.Drôles ou macabres, ces histoires nous emportent dans un monde de poésie, loin de la raison quotidienne.Traduction et notes de Sylvie Aubert.

243 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2019

About the author

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, and along with Lady Gregory and Edward Martyn founded the Abbey Theatre, serving as its chief during its early years. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for what the Nobel Committee described as "inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation." He was the first Irishman so honored. Yeats is generally considered one of the few writers who completed their greatest works after being awarded the Nobel Prize; such works include The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and Other Poems (1929).

Yeats was born and educated in Dublin but spent his childhood in County Sligo. He studied poetry in his youth, and from an early age was fascinated by both Irish legends and the occult. Those topics feature in the first phase of his work, which lasted roughly until the turn of the century. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and those slow paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser and Percy Bysshe Shelley, as well as to the Pre-Raphaelite poets. From 1900, Yeats' poetry grew more physical and realistic. He largely renounced the transcendental beliefs of his youth, though he remained preoccupied with physical and spiritual masks, as well as with cyclical theories of life.
--from Wikipedia