Saint-John Perse
Saint- John Perse ( Alexis Leger actually; born May 31, 1887 in Pointe -à- Pitre in Guadeloupe, † September 20, 1975 in Giens ) was a French poet, diplomat and Nobel laureate in Literature.
Life
Alexis Leger spent his childhood on the French West Indies. With his family, he returned in 1899 returned to France, where he studied law and political science in Bordeaux and Paris.
In 1914 he entered the diplomatic service and in 1916 secretary of legation in Beijing, toured Korea, Mongolia and Japan. After the First World War, he became an adviser to the French Foreign Minister Aristide Briand. In 1929 he was appointed the Foreign Ministry to Directeur des Affaires politiques. In 1933 he became Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, succeeding his longtime friend and conveyor Philippe Berthelot.
Because of his negative attitude towards the policy of appeasement to Nazi Germany Alexis Leger was relieved of his posts in 1940. He lost his French citizenship, and its assets were confiscated. He emigrated then to the U.S., where he worked as a consultant for the Library of Congress. After the Second World War, he was rehabilitated in France. Nevertheless, the diplomat Alexis Leger initially remained in the United States and did not return until 1957, when poet Saint- John Perse, back to France.
The southern French city of Aix -en- Provence is now a center with a library for the study of the works of Saint- John Perse.
Literary creation
In 1960 Saint- John Perse " for the high flight and the visual creative fantasies of his poetry, reflecting the timing of the visionary " the Nobel Prize for Literature. His poetry is in the tradition of Arthur Rimbaud. Hugo Friedrich apostrophized Perse in his book on the structure of modern poetry as particularly radical exponents of modern poetry. His lyrics have a particularly high degree markings such as dissociation, loss of sense of unity, deliberate obscurity, conscious irritation and uncertainty of the reader.
Works (selection)
- Eloges (containing Images à Crusoé, Pour une enfance fêter, Eloges ), 1911 ( songs of praise, dt of R. Kassner by seen by H. Steiner, 1938 by F. Kemp, 1957).
- Anabase, 1924 ( Anabasis, German by W. Benjamin ( ), and B. Groethuysen, 1929? Revised and worked over by H. Steiner, 1950; well by F. Kemp, 1955; singing I, transmitted by W. Riemerschmid, 1950 ). Seven songs, German translation by W. Benjamin ( 1925), in Walter Benjamin edition. Smaller translations Supplément I, Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhäuser édit, Suhrkamp Verlag. Francfort sur le Main, 1999, p. 447-453.
- Amitié du Prince, 1924 ( Rhum of kings, German by H. Steiner, 1952).
- Chanson du Présomptif, 1924.
- Exile, 1942 ( exile, dt of L. Gescher, 1948 by J. and W. Ringelnatz Rütten Auer, 1949; F. Kemp, 1957).
- Poème à l' Étrangère, 1943 ( poem to a stranger ).
- Pluies, 1943 (rain, dt E. Lillegg, 1946).
- Neiges, 1944.
- Quatre poèmes (1941-1944) containing exile Pluies, Neiges et Poème à l' Étrangère, 1944.
- Berceuse, 1945 ( lullaby, dt of R. Gerhardt, 1951; K. Kemp, 1957).
- Vents, 1946 ( winds, dt of F. Kemp, 1956).
- Amer, 1948 ( Seemarken, German by F. Kemp, 1959).
- Chronique, 1959 ( Chronicle, German by F. Kemp, 1960).
- Grammar, speech at the Nobel Banquet in Stockholm on 10 December 1960, 1960 ( German by F. Kemp, Suddeutsche newspaper, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Die Neue Rundschau, 1960, by K. Spann, Der Tagesspiegel, 1961).
- Oiseaux, 1962 ( birds, dt of F. Kemp, 1964).
- Chant pour un équinoxe, 1975.
- Saint- John Perse / seals, in two volumes, French - German parallel text, Edited by Friedhelm Kemp, Hermann Luchterhand: Darmstadt -Berlin- Spandau - Neuwied, 1957 et 1959.
- Saint- John Perse / The poetic work, in two volumes, French - German parallel text, Edited by Friedhelm Kemp, Heimeran Publisher:. Munich, 1978