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The Digamma
An inspiring book of poetry and prose by the celebrated author Yves Bonnefoy.
Heralded as one of France’s greatest poets, Yves Bonnefoy has been dazzling readers since the publication of his first book in 1953. He remains influential and relevant, continuing to compose groundbreaking new work. Though Bonnefoy recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, many are calling these past two decades his most impressive yet.
His latest book of poetry and prose, The Digamma , fits wonderfully into his impressive oeuvre, offering his signature style of simple but powerful language with fresh new grace. A key passage of the title piece of the book depicts the figures of Nicolas Poussin’s The Shepherds of Arcadia , which Bonnefoy has identified as crucial to the artist’s evolution. The sustained reference to Poussin’s iconography serves to ground the text in the lost civilizations of antiquity. Subtly, it brings out the underlying theme of the entire collection—in the ambivalent world we inhabit, being and non-being is fundamentally one.
As a leading translator of Shakespeare in France, Bonnefoy’s fascination with the master playwright is displayed in “God in Hamlet” and “For a Staging of Othello,” two poems in prose that belong to an ongoing series of meditations on the plays. The collection also includes haunting reflections on children, nature, the origins of art, and vanished cultures.
Heralded as one of France’s greatest poets, Yves Bonnefoy has been dazzling readers since the publication of his first book in 1953. He remains influential and relevant, continuing to compose groundbreaking new work. Though Bonnefoy recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday, many are calling these past two decades his most impressive yet.
His latest book of poetry and prose, The Digamma , fits wonderfully into his impressive oeuvre, offering his signature style of simple but powerful language with fresh new grace. A key passage of the title piece of the book depicts the figures of Nicolas Poussin’s The Shepherds of Arcadia , which Bonnefoy has identified as crucial to the artist’s evolution. The sustained reference to Poussin’s iconography serves to ground the text in the lost civilizations of antiquity. Subtly, it brings out the underlying theme of the entire collection—in the ambivalent world we inhabit, being and non-being is fundamentally one.
As a leading translator of Shakespeare in France, Bonnefoy’s fascination with the master playwright is displayed in “God in Hamlet” and “For a Staging of Othello,” two poems in prose that belong to an ongoing series of meditations on the plays. The collection also includes haunting reflections on children, nature, the origins of art, and vanished cultures.
- GenresPoetry
64 pages, Hardcover
First published February 15, 2014
About the author
Yves Bonnefoy
307 books86 followersYves Bonnefoy (1923/6/24-2016/7/1) was a French poet and essayist. Bonnefoy was born in Tours, Indre-et-Loire, the son of a railroad worker and a teacher.
His works have been of great importance in post-war French literature, at the same time poetic and theoretical, examining the meaning of the spoken and written word. He also published a number of translations, most notably Shakespeare and published several works on art and art history, including Miró and Giacometti.
His works have been of great importance in post-war French literature, at the same time poetic and theoretical, examining the meaning of the spoken and written word. He also published a number of translations, most notably Shakespeare and published several works on art and art history, including Miró and Giacometti.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 5, 2015
It's admittedly a bit of a struggle for me to accept these as prose poems. I've read a lot of prose poetry, I'm generally rather fond of the form, but these are so long, and so narrative, with characters and plot and action, as well as being in prose, that they strike me more in the vein of Borges' Ficciones than prose poetry. Of course, poems can be long, narrative, with characters, and plot, and action (Autobiography of Red, The Illiad, and many others in the epic tradition are so). And poems can be in prose. But when you put all those things together, I really wonder what makes the author want to call these poems instead of short stories. The language doesn't take any syntactical or grammatical risks or liberties that would be more permissable as poetry than as prose. The imagery is concrete and specifically detailed, creating setting more than atmosphere. There is little that happens that can't fit within the logic of a story. So it really does escape me what, other than the authors' desire, makes these poems.
But, genre and form aside, they are really lovely, haunting stories, very much in the tradition of Borges. Imaginative, eerie, and utterly engaging. I absolutely loved the titular story about the disappearance of a letter from the alphabet and how that may have changed the relationship between the world and ideas.
But, genre and form aside, they are really lovely, haunting stories, very much in the tradition of Borges. Imaginative, eerie, and utterly engaging. I absolutely loved the titular story about the disappearance of a letter from the alphabet and how that may have changed the relationship between the world and ideas.
Displaying 1 of 1 review