Henri Deluy (France) 1931-2021

Henri Deluy (France)

1931-2021

Born in Marseille on April 25, 1931, Henri Deluy published his first collection of poetry at the age of 17, and since then has dedicated his life to poetry, founding the important poetry journal Action Poétique in 1955. The journal has currently published over 200 issues.

        Reportedly, Deuly began writing poetry after sending off a few poems as age 13 to his fellow Aix-en-Provence poet Blaise Cendrars. Cendrars made a few grammatical corrections and returned them, enough to encourage the young boy to continue writing. 

     Until 2005, Deluy also headed the poetry festival, Biennale Internationale des Poètes en Val-de-Marne.

     Deluy has edited numerous anthologies and translated work from several languages into French, including works by Mayakovsky, Siefert, and Pessoa.

     His 1994 collection of poetry, L'Amour charnel, was translated by Guy Bennett into English as Carnal Love and published by Sun & Moon Press.

     Deluy is also renowned as an excellent cook.

     He died in 2021.

BOOKS OF POETRY

Images (Paris: Éditions de La Revue Moderne, 1948); Nécessité vertu (1957); L'Infraction (Paris: Seghers, 1974); Marseille, capitale Ivry (L'Humanité, 1977); La psychanalyse mère et chienne (with Elisabeth Roudinesco) (10/18, 1979); Lou T'aimer (Paris: orange Export Ltd, 1980); Les Mille (Paris: Sehers, 1980); Peinture pour Raquel (Paris: Orange Export Ltd, 1983); Première version la bouche (ENSAD, 1984); Vingt-quatre heures d'amour en juillet, puis en août (Ipomée, 1987); Le temps longtemps (Messidor, 1990); Premières suites (Paris: Flammarion, 1991); La Répétion, autrement la différence (Paris: fourbis, 1992); L'Amour charnel (Paris: Flammarion, 1994); Da Capo (Paris: Flammarion, 1998); Pronoun (Phi, 1998); Je ne suis pas une prostituée, j'espère le devenir (Paris: Flammarion, 2002); A l'étrangère (Éditions Virgile, 2006); Les Arbres noirs (Paris: Flammarion, 2006); Au blanc de neige (Éditions Virgile, 2007); Stripboek (Ink, 2009); Manager la mer, bouillabaisses et soupes de la mer autour du monde (Al Dante, 2011); L'heure dite (Paris: Flammarion, 2011); Inprévisible passé (Paris: Le Temps des Cerises, 2012); Kérosène Kitsch (Paris: Flammarion, 2017)

ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS

Carnal Love (trans. by Guy Bennett) (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1996)

Selections from Carnal Love

To say: I liked the green stem of the plants; to say:

I liked the colorful tigers, the illustrated
Chronologies, the inaccessible relaities, the invisible
Structures of emotion, and, also, sudden sadness,
A bit abrupt, which subdued the charm of the narrative which,
However, came from the writing

 ___

What I said. - I did not say it all.

The word that I didn't say, you didn't want
Me to say it. - The word of the night.
It became even more remote;
With the fragrance of the body that evoked it.
And, nearby, what remained
Red in the blue of the sky.

*

Then falling back,
You said: no more politics.

____

Something which allowed the discovery
Of little truths. - The tiny undulations
of the sea, and threads, hanging
Into water. - You were alone, to contemplate
The softness, and this thin line, hardly
Moving. - Without a shadow.

____

It was a smile without conviction, almost

Reluctant. - To accept it, as such.
In the foggy night. With a cold wind.
Then, to leave the spot. To find yourself again
In the middle of the street.

—Translated from the French by Guy Bennett
_______

Reprinted from Carnal Love (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1996). Copyright ©1996 by Guy Bennett.