Seuls Demeurent and New Directions bilingual René Char poetry

I added a review at amazon.com on the common Mary Ann Caws "Selected Poems" of René Char.


Amazon.com should list the book under Mary Ann Caws in addition to Jolas as MAC provides the preface in addition to many of the translations and both are designated editors.

The editors fail to indicate which poems are from 1938-1944 "Seuls Demeurent" or the other volumes gathered together in 1948 as the collection "Fureur et Mystère" - which neglect is a real disservice to the reader. In southern France, 1943 was not 1948.

The prolific MAC may well get two things wrong in her own translation of Evadné - a poem which surely requires and deserves at least a short note. For starters, this is Maubec in the Luberon district or Vaucluse. Note the connection to de Sade. The heraldics of Maubec are also amusing (4 lion's feet and a gold tower.) The stones of the chateau were recycled by the locals. Old Maubec is gone. See "silex" and Char on de Sade and "la boue du ciel". Note the four feet of Lilith in some illustrations.

In short, it is time for a new edition with an adequate TOC, notes and some revised translations, not another reprint.


I might add here that the ARGUMENT of the book Seuls Demeurent is produced as a poem with a first line as title.  The ARGUMENT of the book Le Poème Pulvérisé is produced as the third in that sequence (a sequence not noted as such despite the work of Pierre Boulez and Henri Matisse with regard to that book.)  I could go on.

Related ISBN are 9780811211925 0811211924 9780811211918 for the 1992 paperback and hardcover from New Directions.

The Oeuvres Complèts date to 1983 so it appears that whoever built the TOC ignored Caws own preface.

As an e-book, would you want to see the relevant links in a Table of Contents [TOC] or in a preface or as a pop-up with the respective translations?

Roger Moore

I have added a Curl poetry markup page with two poems by Roger Moore to the Aule-Browser Canadian poets page.

The poems are set to Oaxaca photographs by Tina Modotti.