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A Bilingual Anthology of Modern French Poetry by Women Elles • Compiled and translated by Martin Sorrell with an afterword by Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron Elles A Bilingual Anthology of Modern French Poetry by Women Elles introduces English-speaking readers to some of the best French poetry published by women over the last twenty years. Martin Sorrell has chosen work from seventeen distinctive and diverse poets and provided lively translations alongside the originals. Each poet introduces herself with an essay on her conception of poetry and her own position as a writer. Martin SorreU is Senior Lecturer in French at the University of Exeter. Several of his translations of French poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio. In his Introduction to Biles, he situates the poets in their context and discusses the issues which confronted him as compiler and translator, not least as a man respond ing to creative work written by women. Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron is Director of Re search at the Centre National de la Recherche Scien tifique in Paris, and is a leading specialist in modern French literature. Elles A Bilingual Anthology of Modern French Poetry by Women Compiled and translated by Martin Sorrell with an afterword by Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron UNIVERSITY of EXETER PRESS First published in 1995 by University of Exeter Press Reed Hall, Streatham Drive Exeter, Devon EX4 4QR UK www.ex.ac.ukluepl Printed on demand since 2002 Copyright: This selection © University of Exeter Press 1995 Introduction and English translations © Martin Sorrell 1995 Afterword © Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron 1995 Biography and essay on Marguerite Yourcenar © Sally A. Wallis 1995 All other biographies and essays in French, and the original French poems, are the copyright of the individual poets and publishers listed in the Acknowledgements of this book (pp. 258-259), which constitute an extension of lhis copyright statement. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permisSion of the copyright bolder. British Library Cataloguiug in Publication Data A catalogue record for tbis book is available from the British Library. ISBN 0 85989 448 7 Typeset in Plantin Ligbt by Colin Bakke Typesetting, Exeter Printed by Lightning Source For Claire, with love CONTENTS INTRODUCTION by Martin Sorrell 1 MARIE-CLAIRE BANCQUART . 11 CHRISTIANE BAROCHE 25 GENEVIEVE BON 38 CLAUDE DE BURINE 50 ANDREE CHEDlD . 63 LOUISE HERLIN 77 JEANNE HYVRARD 89 LESLIE KAPLAN 105 JOSEE LAPEYRERE 116 JO-ANN LEON 131 ANNE PORTUGAL 147 GISELE PRASSINOS 158 JACQUELINE RISSET 173 AMINA SAXD ... 187 SILVIA BARON SUPERVIELLE 198 MARGUERITE YOURCENAR 211 CELINE ZINS 225 EPILOGUE by Jacqueline Chenieux-Gendron 235 AFTERWORD (English version of the EPIWGUE) 245 INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES 255 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 258 'Voyez comme aujourd'hui les femmes ont l'honneur' (Soeuf Anne de Marquets, 1533·-1588) 'A mesure que Ie sommei! abandonne mes paupieres, je sens, dans tout mon etre, un doux fremissement qui m'annonce une saison nouvelle' (lvlarie-Emilie de Montanclos, 1736-1812) INTRODUCTION T HERE exists a very substantial body of poetry writ ten or published by Frenchwomen during the last twenty years. If their books do not vanish from sight, then they may persuade future literary historians that this period was something of a golden age. It was not always so. Look back down the centuries and it is no easy matter to dis cover the names, let alone the work, of more than a handful of women poets. The irony is that, probably as a direct con sequence of their rarity, such as did exist have acquired virtu ally iconic status. The most ancient perhaps are the most revered. Christine de Pisan, Marguerite de Navarre, Louise Labe are remote and secure in their late Medieval and Renaissance fastness. Then, after almost three centuries of apparent infertility, we meet: Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, richly romantic and Romantic; Louise Ackermann, nine teenth century as well, full of pre-modernist angst; Anna de Noailles, twentieth century but still Romantic and Classical; Catherine Pozzi, sharply modern but rooted nonetheless in the Renaissance; Marie Noel, innocently at large in this cruel century; Adrienne Monnier, powerful and unftamboyantly modern; Louise de Vilmorin, worldly and self-mockingly modern; Joyce Mansour, in touch with Surrealism's raging violence.l This cannot be called a long list, stretching as it does over five centuries. Within it, what is more, certain names are scarcely famous. The question which asks why so many women writers are forgotten, a question now properly estab lished in academic enquiry, ensures that it is no longer possible to discard inconvenient writing simply as bad: the

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ELLES is the first bilingual anthology of its kind. It introduces English-speaking readers to some of the best French poetry written by women over the last twenty years. Martin Sorrell has chosen a selection of work from seventeen distinctive and diverse poets, and he has provided lively facing-page
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