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Ulisse
Eco di eventi che hanno inciso profondamente sulla coscienza moderna, l’opera di Benjamin Fondane è espressione di un «irrassegnato» confronto con l’assurdo e con il male assoluto, di un’esperienza «ai confini della vita», che si traduce in un esilio dell’anima, conseguenza di un sentimento di dolorosa inappartenenza. Nato nel 1898 a Iaşi, in una famiglia di intellettuali ebrei, all’età di 25 anni decide di trasferirsi a Parigi, scelta che segna una tappa fondamentale del suo itinerario di uomo e discrittore. Morirà nel 1944 nel campo di concentramento di Auschwitz-Birkenau. Prima di intraprendere l’ultimo viaggio, prima che l’abisso diventi reale, affida ai suoi scritti il senso profondo di una rivolta spirituale e lascia in eredità «agli uomini degli antipodi» il dovere di coglierne il significato. Il volume Ulisse propone la traduzione inedita, a cura di Annafrancesca Naccarato, di una parte tra le più rappresentative della sua poesia in lingua francese.
Paperback
Published May 1, 2014
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About the author
Benjamin Fondane
46 books31 followersalt spelling: Benjamin Fundoianu
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor Arghezi, and dedicated several poetic cycles to the rural life of his native Moldavia. Fondane, who was of Jewish Romanian extraction and a nephew of Jewish intellectuals Elias and Moses Schwartzfeld, participated in both minority secular Jewish culture and mainstream Romanian culture. During and after World War I, he was active as a cultural critic, avant-garde promoter and, with his brother-in-law Armand Pascal, manager of the theatrical troupe Insula.
Fondane began a second career in 1923, when he moved to Paris. Affiliated with Surrealism, but strongly opposed to its communist leanings, he moved on to become a figure in Jewish existentialism and a leading disciple of Lev Shestov. His critique of political dogma, rejection of rationalism, expectation of historical catastrophe and belief in the soteriological force of literature were outlined in his celebrated essays on Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as in his final works of poetry. His literary and philosophical activities helped him build close relationships with other intellectuals: Shestov, Emil Cioran, David Gascoyne, Jacques Maritain, Victoria Ocampo, Ilarie Voronca etc. In parallel, Fondane also had a career in cinema: a film critic and a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures, he later worked on Rapt with Dimitri Kirsanoff, and directed the since-lost film Tararira in Argentina.
A prisoner of war during the fall of France, Fondane was released and spent the occupation years in clandestinity. He was eventually captured and handed to Nazi German authorities, who deported him to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was sent to the gas chamber during the last wave of the Holocaust. His work was largely rediscovered later in the 20th century, when it became the subject of scholarly research and public curiosity in both France and Romania. In the latter country, this revival of interest also sparked a controversy over copyright issues.
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu; born Benjamin Wechsler, Wexler or Vecsler, first name also Beniamin or Barbu, usually abridged to B.; was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor Arghezi, and dedicated several poetic cycles to the rural life of his native Moldavia. Fondane, who was of Jewish Romanian extraction and a nephew of Jewish intellectuals Elias and Moses Schwartzfeld, participated in both minority secular Jewish culture and mainstream Romanian culture. During and after World War I, he was active as a cultural critic, avant-garde promoter and, with his brother-in-law Armand Pascal, manager of the theatrical troupe Insula.
Fondane began a second career in 1923, when he moved to Paris. Affiliated with Surrealism, but strongly opposed to its communist leanings, he moved on to become a figure in Jewish existentialism and a leading disciple of Lev Shestov. His critique of political dogma, rejection of rationalism, expectation of historical catastrophe and belief in the soteriological force of literature were outlined in his celebrated essays on Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as in his final works of poetry. His literary and philosophical activities helped him build close relationships with other intellectuals: Shestov, Emil Cioran, David Gascoyne, Jacques Maritain, Victoria Ocampo, Ilarie Voronca etc. In parallel, Fondane also had a career in cinema: a film critic and a screenwriter for Paramount Pictures, he later worked on Rapt with Dimitri Kirsanoff, and directed the since-lost film Tararira in Argentina.
A prisoner of war during the fall of France, Fondane was released and spent the occupation years in clandestinity. He was eventually captured and handed to Nazi German authorities, who deported him to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He was sent to the gas chamber during the last wave of the Holocaust. His work was largely rediscovered later in the 20th century, when it became the subject of scholarly research and public curiosity in both France and Romania. In the latter country, this revival of interest also sparked a controversy over copyright issues.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 20, 2022
“Ulisses, temos de nos deixar; a terra termina...
Os ratos roíam-nos as cordas há muito tempo,
e as gaivotas bicaram-nos a cera dos ouvidos -
Atados por nós próprios, é demais!
Queres que nos lancemos ao mar - livremente?
Estou impaciente por ouvir a canção que mata!...”
Os ratos roíam-nos as cordas há muito tempo,
e as gaivotas bicaram-nos a cera dos ouvidos -
Atados por nós próprios, é demais!
Queres que nos lancemos ao mar - livremente?
Estou impaciente por ouvir a canção que mata!...”
January 10, 2022
De longe um dos melhores livros que li em 2021. E também de longe um dos melhores livros que já li em toda a minha vida. Diria que é a antítese crua do olhar de Kavafis sobre a viagem, para resumir injustamente toda a espessura do livro a uma ideia muito pessoal. A reler, definitivamente, em 2022 e por aí adiante.
February 28, 2022
XVI
O mundo acabou, a viagem
começa.
Haverá ainda um sol
nalgum lugar?
Temos medo da vida,
temos medo da morte,
de todas essas velhas canções
das amas-de-leite.
Trazemos connosco
o peso de uma raça de ancestrais
que amaram demasiado esta terra
para não a odiar.
Somos descendentes da pedra
pesada e selvagem,
fomos rochas, raízes,
nunca pássaros, nunca nuvens -
folhas dos cumes -
Os deuses, ah! estão mortos.
Procuramos
homens. Homens
que não tenham medo de acabar
com o que resta dos deuses. (p.51)
Este é o quarto livro do projeto de leitura "Volta ao Mundo - um livro de cada país" (Roménia, 9/193)
https://www.facebook.com/tiago.aires....
O mundo acabou, a viagem
começa.
Haverá ainda um sol
nalgum lugar?
Temos medo da vida,
temos medo da morte,
de todas essas velhas canções
das amas-de-leite.
Trazemos connosco
o peso de uma raça de ancestrais
que amaram demasiado esta terra
para não a odiar.
Somos descendentes da pedra
pesada e selvagem,
fomos rochas, raízes,
nunca pássaros, nunca nuvens -
folhas dos cumes -
Os deuses, ah! estão mortos.
Procuramos
homens. Homens
que não tenham medo de acabar
com o que resta dos deuses. (p.51)
Este é o quarto livro do projeto de leitura "Volta ao Mundo - um livro de cada país" (Roménia, 9/193)
https://www.facebook.com/tiago.aires....
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews