Jules
Supervielle (born Uruguay / France)
1884-1960
Jules
Supervielle was born into a French-Basque family living in Uruguay. Orphaned,
he was raised by his uncle, spending his childhood on the pampas, a subject of
much of early poetry. At ten he was sent to Paris for his education, and there
he attended the Sorbonne for college.
For a while Supervielle served in the
French army, but he developed a heart condition that lasted for the rest of his
life. Except for frequent visits to his home city of Montevideo, he remained in
France throughout the rest of his life, except for the period during World War
II, which he spent in Uruguay.
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Supervielle is known primarily for his
personal and imagistically-rich poetry, beginning with his 1925 volume, Gravitations
and continuing through his later volumes including Le Forçat innocent,
Les Amis inconnus, La Fable du Monde, Oublieuse Mémoire, Naissances
and other books of poetry.
Supervielle was also the author of several
works of fiction, Le voleur d'enfants (1926, The Man Who Stole
Children) being the most noted of them. He also wrote a pantomime for
Jean-Louis Barrault, and scripted nine plays, among which Bolivar formed the
basis of the Darius Milhaud opera.
He died in Paris on May 17, 1960.
BOOKS
OF POETRY
Brumes
du Passé
(no publisher listed, 1901); Comme des Voiliers (Collection de la
Poétique, 1910); Les Poèmes de l'Humour Triste (Paris: A la Belle
Edition, 1919); Poèmes (Paris: Figuière, 1919); Débarcadères
(Paris: Aux Editions de la Revue de L'Amérique Latine, 1922); Gravitations
(Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1925; revised in 1932); Oloron-Sainte-Marie
(Marseille: Cahiers du Sud, 1927); Saisir (Paris: Editions Gallimard,
1928); Le Forçat innocent (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1930); Les Amis
inconnus (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1934); La Fable du Monde
(Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1938); Poèmes de la France Malheureuse
(Buenos Aires: Editions Amis de Letrres Françaises Sur, 1941); Choix de
Poèmes (Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1944); 1939-1945. Poèmes (Paris:
Editions Gallimard, 1946); Choix de Poèmes (Paris: Gallimard, 1947); A
la Nuit (Neuchâtel, France: Cahiers du Rhône, 1947); Oublieuse mémoire
(Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1949); Naissances (Paris: Editions
Gallimard, 1951); L'Escalier: Poèmes nouveaux (Paris: Editions
Gallimard, 1956); Le Corps tragique (Paris: Editions Gallimard, 1959).
ENGLISH
LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
Supervielle, trans. by Teo
Savory (Santa Barbara, California: Unicorn Press, 1967); Jules Supervielle:
Selected Writings, trans. by James Kirkup, Denise Levertov, and Kenneth
Rexroth (New York: New Directions, 1967); Selected Poems and Reflections on
the Art of Poetry, trans. by George Bogin (New York: Sun, 1985).
For
a reading in French of "Quartre heures," click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsgToAxGXU8
Without
Walls
to
Ramón Gómez de la Serna
The
whole sky is stained with ink like the fingers of a child.
Where
is the school and the schoolbag?
Hide
this hand─it, too, has black stains─
Under
the wood of this table.
The
faces of forty children share my solitude.
What
have I done with the ocean,
In
what aerial desert did the flying fish die?
I'm
sixteen all over the world and on the high mountains,
I'm
sixteen on the rivers and around Notre Dame
And
in the classroom at Janson-de-Sailly
Where
I see time pass on the dial of my palms.
The
noise of my heart prevents me from listening to the teacher.
I'm
already afraid of life with its hobnailed shoes
And
my fear makes me so ashamed that my glance wanders
Into
a distance where remorse can't appear.
The
walk of the horses on the asphalt shines in my damp soul
And
is reflected upside down intertwined with rays.
A
fly disappears in the sands of the ceiling,
The
Latin around us squats and shows us its leprosy─
I
don't dare touch another thing on the black wooden table.
When
I lift my eyes to the Orient of the teacher's desk
I
see a young girl facing us like beauty itself,
Facing
us like pain, like necessity.
A
young girl sits there, she makes her heart sparkle
Like
a jewel full of fever to distant precious stones.
A
cloud of boys is gliding toward her lips
Without
ever seeming to get closer.
We
glimpse her garter, she lives far from pleasures
And
her half-naked leg, uneasy, swings back and forth.
Her
bosom is so alone in the world that we tremble that she might be cold,
(Is
it my voice which is asking if the windows can be shut?)
She
would love to love all the boys in the class,
This
young girl who has appeared among us
But
knowing that she'll die if the teacher discovers her
She
begs us to be discreet so she can live for a moment
And
be a pretty girl in the midst of adolescents.
The
sea in a corner of the globe counts and recounts its waves
And
pretends to have more of them than there are stars in the sky.
─Translated
from the French by George Bogin
(from
Gravitations, 1925)
Whisper
in Agony
Don't
be shocked,
Close
your eyes
Until
they turn
Truly
to stone.
Leave
your heart alone
Even
if it stops.
It
beats solely for itself
from
a secret inclination of its own.
Your
hands will spread out
from
the frozen block
and
your brow will be bare
as
a great square between
two
occupied armies.
─Translated
from the French by Douglas Messerli
(from
Le Forçat innocent, 1930)
Beautiful
Monster of the Night
"Beautiful
monster of the night, palpitating gloom
You
display a wet snout from outer space
You
approach, give me your paw
And
pull it back as if seized with doubt.
I
am a friend of your dark gestures, nonetheless,
My
eyes plumb the depths of your impenetrable coat.
Can't
you see me as a brother of the dark
In
this world living like ordinary folk, but of the next,
My
purest song kept to myself.
Go,
I also know silence's torment
With
a hasty heart, by patience wornout,
Knocking
without an answer on death's doors.
─But
every once in a while death replies
When
your heart is so scared it beats against its walls,
And
you're from a world where they're afraid to die."
Eye
to eye, with little steps in retreat,
The
monster withdrew into rash shade,
And
the sky, as always, studded itself with stars.
─Translated
from the French by Douglas Messerli
(from
La Fable du Monde, 1938)
PERMISSIONS
"Within
Walls"
English
language translation copyright (c) George Bogin. Reprinted by permission of
George Bogin.
"Whisper
in Agony" and "Beautiful Monster of the Night"
English
language copyright ©2003 by Douglas Messerli. Reprinted by permission of
Douglas Messerli.
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