Remy de Gourmont

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Remy de Gourmont

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1Randy_Hierodule
Redigerat: aug 31, 2016, 1:22 pm

Remy de Gourmont's Oraisons Mauvaises, in French and in English:

http://www.thedandy.org/beautyinugliness

(note: there are a few awkward points in the English: the editorial intrusion in the translated preface to the poem, apprising us of the fact that Lupus Vulgaris remains incurable in the 21st century, should have been a footnote rather than a promotion of the author into the future. Also, "Que tes mains soient bénies" should be "Blessed be thine hands", the "by" likely a typo.)

2Randy_Hierodule
Redigerat: sep 7, 2016, 9:01 am

Here is the English, tidied up a bit:

EVIL PRAYERS

You are a poet and critic, one of the best of your era (the Belle Époch, ironically). You are held in high public esteem, even though you possess (and publish) your dangerous opinions via the ‘Mercure de France’; one of the most important publications (aesthetically) of the age. Suddenly, your face is horribly disfigured by a disease in just a few weeks, which, even in our time, has no known cure: Discoid lupus erythematosus. You are forbidden from eating in your favorite restaurants and cafés because your face (now hideously deformed) would empty any such establishment in just a few seconds. At the peak of your creative powers, you are exiled to your apartment in the Rue de Saints-Péres, where you live solely by your pen, producing poems, plays and criticism of great beauty, even though, suddenly, you’ve become the ugliest man in all of Paris.


You are Remy de Gourmont:

I

Blessèd be thine hands, for they are unclean!

At every joint lie secret sins unseen,

Their white nails beneath the lamp

Evoke hosts stolen beneath the white shadow of the lamp,

And upon thy finger, the captive opal’s gloss

Is the last sigh of Jesus on the cross.

II

Blessèd be thine eyes, for they are murderous!

They are full of chrysalides and ghosts diaphanous,

As in lifeless waters, blue at the bottom of grottoes green,

One sees sleeping flowers there, which are creatures just as green,

And this dolorous, bitter sapphire which fright now gleams across

Is the last glance of Jesus on the cross.

III

Blessèd be thy breasts, for they are sacrilegious!

They’ve bared themselves like spring bouquets prodigious,

Flowering for caresses, harvesters of lip and hand,

Roadside common flowers, touched by every hand,

And the jacinth dreaming there, with air kingly, sad in loss,

Is the last love of Jesus on the cross.

IV

Blessèd be thy loins, for they are infertile!

They are as beautiful as lands of desolation; sterile,

The harrow’s blade found naught there, save clods red, rebellious,

The ripe flower there has only sown a seed rebellious,

And in Joy’s Palace, where this searing topaz does tremble and toss

Is the last desire of Jesus on the cross.

V

Blessèd be thy mouth, for its adulterous!

It has the taste of new roses, and of old earth noxious,

It has sucked the dark juices of flowers and reeds;

When it speaks, one hears the treacherous sound of reeds,

And this cruel ruby, all bloody and cold as the fosse,

Is the last wound of Jesus on the cross.

VI

Blessèd be thy feet, for they are immodest!

They are shod in whorehouse slippers, in feast-day temples pressed

Their heavy heels on the shoulders of the poor,

They’ve trod upon the purest, the sweetest, the utterly poor,

And the amethystine buckle, which holds your garter’s silken floss,

Is the last spasm of Jesus on the cross.

VII

Blessèd be thy soul, for it is rotten!

Fallen to the gutter, Haughty Emerald, soon forgotten,

Proudly mingling with the odours of the mud,

And I will crush into the glorious mud,

Onto the paved street, which is a way of the cross,

The last thought of Jesus on the cross.

3Randy_Hierodule
sep 1, 2016, 12:22 pm

A contemporary appraisal of Gourmont as a writer:

http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2014/05/paul-cohen/

4Soukesian
sep 2, 2016, 3:58 pm

Found The Angels of Perversity quite exquisite.

5LiminalSister
nov 18, 2016, 12:35 pm

Can someone suggest a good collection of Remy de Gourmont's poetry in English. I'd love to find it with Oraisons Mauvaises.

Thank you!
Madeleine

6Randy_Hierodule
Redigerat: nov 18, 2016, 1:35 pm

Oraisons Mauvaises is included in the excellent genre anthology, French Symbolist Poetry: an anthology. There may be other anthologies of the same title, so you will want the John Porter Houston edition. It's impressively comprehensive, including many seldom translated, let alone anthologized, poets associated with the genre (such as Jean Lorrain, credited under his birth name, Paul Duval).

Remy de Gourmont: Selections from All His Works may include other examples of Gourmont's poetry.

7Randy_Hierodule
nov 22, 2016, 11:03 am

Here is the TOC for the above anthology:

The Hermit by Guillaume Apollinaire
Villages by Henry Bataille
The Wet Month by Henry Bataille
Art-flower by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Epitaph by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
The Ill-starred Flower by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Letting The Pack Run by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Litany Of Sleep by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Pariah by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Time by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
To A Suckling Satirist by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
To The Eternal Madam by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
To The Memory Of Zulma by Edouard Joachim Corbiere
Dropping Petals by Paul Duval
Filth by Paul Duval
Modern Times! Modern Times! Through The Shouts... by Paul Duval
Narcissus by Paul Duval
And It Is Christ, Like A Sailor; It Is He Whom We No... by Max Elskamp
I Have The Sadness Of A Town Built Of Wood--turn... by Max Elskamp
Reykjavik by Max Elskamp
Day Of Wrath by Rene Ghil
Autumn by Albert Giraud
Red And White by Albert Giraud
Sunset by Albert Giraud
Agatha by Remy De Gourmont
Evil Prayers by Remy De Gourmont
Ursula by Remy De Gourmont
Far, Still Farther, Far From The Human Visage... by Gustave Kahn
I Came Back To The Dwelling With The Silent Intoxication.. by Gustave Kahn
Park Of Silence, Fatal Opacity, Blindness On One's... by Gustave Kahn
Rounds, Grapes, Roses! The Curious Have Also Come... by Gustave Kahn
Such A Great Sorrow Came From Your Pale Gestures... by Gustave Kahn
Toward The Elusive Open Sky Pitches The Vanishig Ship... by Gustave Kahn
Black Northwind, Howling Downpour, And Black River... by Jules Laforgue
Coming Winter by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of Monotonous Autumn by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of The Hurdy-gurdy by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of The King Of Thule by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of The Pianos Heard In Rich Neighborhoods by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of The Poor Knight Errant by Jules Laforgue
Lament Of The Springtime by Jules Laforgue
Lament To Our Lady Of The Evenings by Jules Laforgue
Legend by Jules Laforgue
O Diaphanous Geraniums, Magic Warriors, Monomaniac... by Jules Laforgue
Sundays by Jules Laforgue
Dead City by Louis Le Cardonnel
Death by Gregoire Le Roy
Evening Rain by Gregoire Le Roy
The Ride Of The Valkyries by Gregoire Le Roy
Shadow Music by Gregoire Le Roy
Enamel Work On Gold And Silver by Pierre Louys
Stretching Forth The Lance by Pierre Louys
Hospital by Maurice Maeterlinck
Hothouse Ennui by Maurice Maeterlinck
Hothouse Soul by Maurice Maeterlinck
My Soul by Maurice Maeterlinck
All Family Pride Is Glorious As A Sunset, And... by Stephane Mallarme
Herodias--scene by Stephane Mallarme
Hymn For Des Esseintes by Stephane Mallarme
I Have Victoriously Avoided The Same Suicide As The Sun... by Stephane Mallarme
In An Act Of Consecraton, This Midnight, The Lamp... by Stephane Mallarme
Sigh by Stephane Mallarme
The Tomb Of Edgar Allan Poe by Stephane Mallarme
Under The Overwhelming Storm Cloud, In A Shoal... by Stephane Mallarme
When, With Its Fateful Regularity, The Shadow Of Night... by Stephane Mallarme
'will The Pure, Hardy, Beautiful New Day Tear Me Free... by Stephane Mallarme
The Windows by Stephane Mallarme
Goldenmouthed by Stuart Merrill
The Mysterious Song by Stuart Merrill
Nocturn by Stuart Merrill
The Red City by Stuart Merrill
Tale by Stuart Merrill
Florimond by Ephraim Mikhael
The Priest by Ephraim Mikhael
Salome by Oscar Vladislas De Lubicz- Milosz
Agnes by Yannis Papadiamantopoulos
Chimaera by Yannis Papadiamantopoulos
Song by Yannis Papadiamantopoulos
Black Flowers by Pierre Quillard
Legendary And Melancholic Themes by Henri Francois Joseph De Regnier
Salute To The Foreign One by Henri Francois Joseph De Regnier
The High Hall And Its Funeral Doors Gape Open. In The... by Adolphe Rette
Put On Mourning, October, Hither, Autumn Winds! Where... by Adolphe Rette
Wakes by Adolphe Rette
Brussels by Arthur Rimbaud
The Drunken Boat by Arthur Rimbaud
Hear How In April, Near The Acacias, The Peas' Green... by Arthur Rimbaud
Is It An Oriental Dancer? In The First Blue Hours Will... by Arthur Rimbaud
Kindly Morning Thought by Arthur Rimbaud
Memory by Arthur Rimbaud
Newlyweds by Arthur Rimbaud
O Seasons, O Castles, What Soul Is Without Faults?... by Arthur Rimbaud
Rejoicings In Misfortune: 1.banners Of May by Arthur Rimbaud
Rejoicings In Misfortune: 2. Song Of The Highest Tower by Arthur Rimbaud
Rejoicings In Misfortune: 3. Eternity by Arthur Rimbaud
Rejoicings In Misfortune: 4. Golden Age by Arthur Rimbaud
Tear by Arthur Rimbaud
Evening In The Windowpanes Xi by Georges Rodenbach
Invalids At The Window Ii by Georges Rodenbach
Invalids At The Window Xii by Georges Rodenbach
The Life Of Rooms Iv by Georges Rodenbach
The Life Of Rooms Vii by Georges Rodenbach
The Life Of Rooms Xvii by Georges Rodenbach
Mental Aquarium V by Georges Rodenbach
Golgotha by Paul Roux
The Magdalene With Perfumes by Paul Roux
I Dream Of Gentle Verse And Intimate Song; Verse ... by Albert Samain
In The Distance The Black Goat Moves Through... by Albert Samain
Lust by Albert Samain
On Evenings Feverish And Gamy Like Venison, My Soul... by Albert Samain
Spiritual Love by Albert Samain
White by Paul Valery
Autumn-strewn Ground by Charles Van Lerberghe
By The Water by Emile Verhaeren
The Lady In Black by Emile Verhaeren
London by Emile Verhaeren
Mad Song by Emile Verhaeren
The One From The Horizon by Emile Verhaeren
Sin by Emile Verhaeren
Art Of Poetry by Paul Verlaine
Autumn Song by Paul Verlaine
Brussels by Paul Verlaine
A Great Black Somnolence Falls Over My Life. Sleep... by Paul Verlaine
Hope Shines Like A Wisp Of Straw In The Stable. What Do... by Paul Verlaine
Kaleidoscope by Paul Verlaine
Lame Sonnet by Paul Verlaine
Languor by Paul Verlaine
Listen To The Gentle Song, Which Weeps Only To Please... by Paul Verlaine
Lust by Paul Verlaine
Parsifal by Paul Verlaine
Penny Pictures by Paul Verlaine
Turn, Turn, Good Wooden Horses, Turn A Hundred Times... by Paul Verlaine
Verses To Be Slandered by Paul Verlaine
The White Moon Shines In The Woods; From Each Bough... by Paul Verlaine

8LiminalSister
nov 22, 2016, 11:32 am

Thank you, I am grabbing this now along with the two volume Selections from Remy de Gourmont collection.

Madeleine

9tros
nov 22, 2016, 12:16 pm


Is E J Corbiere related to Tristan Corbiere?

10Randy_Hierodule
Redigerat: nov 22, 2016, 1:29 pm

>9 tros: According to the wikipedia scholars, si: his birth name Édouard-Joachim.

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