The Lascaux Notebooks

by Jean-Luc Champerret, Philip Terry (Translator)

This newest Carcanet Classic collects the oldest poetry yet discovered, as written down or runed in the Ice Age in Lascaux and other caves in the Dordogne, and now translated—tentatively—into English for the first time. The translation is at two removes, from French versions by the mysterious linguistic genius Jean-Luc Champerret, and then from the striking originals that retain such a sense of early human presence. Philip Terry mediates between the French and those hitherto inscrutable originals. Jean-Luc Champerret's unique contribution to world literature is in his interpretation of the cave signs. And Philip Terry's contribution is to have discovered and rendered this seminal, hitherto unsuspected work into English. The translated poems are experiments, as the drawings may have been to the original cave poets composing them as image and sound. While archaeologists maintain that these signs are uninterpretable, Champerret assigns them meanings by analogy, then—in an inspired act of creative reading—inserts them into the frequent 3 x 3 grids to be found at Lascaux. The results—revelation of Ice-Age poetry—are startling.

Genres: Poetry

408 pages, Paperback

Published June 30, 2022

Reviews

[birdbassador · Rating 4 out of 5]

my only complaint is that i wish it were more ambiguous how fake it is. like even just moving some of the stuff in the intro to an afterword so there's still, you know, a sense of "well, maybe...???"

[Cooper Renner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m assuming this is perhaps the first major literary hoax of the 21st century rather than what it claims to be—a translation of the work of an obscure French poet interpreting various signs or symbols from the Lascaux caves, not long after they were discovered. Either way it’s a remarkable achievement—a great work of contemporary imagination or an unprecedented and sympathetic look into Ice Age artwork. Did I read every word? No, because much of the text is a work of elaboration, a recreation in increasing detail of what a shaman or “bard” or gifted hunter-gatherer might have made of a sequence of noun “symbols” or picture writing. I found the leanest interpretation quite enough, and quite affecting. Bravo!

[W.S. Luk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean-Luc Champerret, like HOUSE OF LEAVES' Zampanò and Borges' Pierre Menard, is a great writer struggling against the slight disadvantage of not existing. Terry's book, playfully masquerading as a translation of Champerret's translation of the Stone Age cave-art of Lascaux, examines the philosophy of translation and the poetic possibilities of repetition and minimalism. It iterates on a quickly-familiar structure, wherein Champerret derives proposed meanings from sigils painted on the cave walls of Lascaux ("burial site, mourner, sacrifice" is apparently denoted by a mark resembling two potatoes), and reassembles them into increasingly complex excerpts of verse.

Like many parodies of academia THE LASCAUX NOTEBOOKS runs slightly too long (but then again, most real poetry anthologies or collected works face the same issue), but in its best moments it blends this conceit with genuinely clever poetry that finds beauty in the restrictive subjects and forms it employs. Lines like "the call/of the stag/is like a needle" both reads as a compelling poetic image and a plausible simile composed by a Stone Age poet (or indeed by Champerret's gloss of what their work might resemble, with Terry's annotations dutifully pointing out parallels between Champerret's work and the context of the Second World War he "wrote" amongst). Despite the rigid formality of THE LASCAUX NOTEBOOKS, Terry nevertheless finds room to include some straight-faced comedy: two poems elaborate these Stone Age signs into parodies of William Carlos Williams.

[Erica Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this (it's right up my street - poetry, long footnotes, prehistory, oulipo, mystery, a bit of WWII era intrigue) but I think it could have benefitted from being about a quarter of the length.

I bought it on one of those quick and impulsive bookshop runs, and at the time presumed that the premise was as it suggests. I have to admit to being more disappointed than delighted when I got into it and realised what it was.

Still. An entertaining romp for the most part, by this lover of oulipo and sham Perec.

[Jonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

fascinating and beautiful. i bought this because the concept of the poems and the story of the notebooks is so interesting, but reading this was far more enthralling and beautiful than i anticipated. yes, i know it is fiction, but as a whole these poems paint such a vivid picture of another world in another time, that I can't help but believe it. wonderful

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

actual poem:

How I
love you
reindeer

red
and white
and again red

reindeer
how I fucking
love you