Philippe Jaccottet Knihy

Francouzští básníci poslední doby Jaká je dnešní francouzská poezie? Bezpochyby formálně a názorové bohatá. Má také různou myšlenkovou inspiraci: surrealistickou, existencialistickou i křesťanskou. Českému čtenáři, vedenému k zemitosti a lidovosti, se však může zdát abstraktní a spekulativní... Má blízko k próze, a to poetické zůstává v maximálně účinném obraze, v hudbě a volbě slov a v rytmu věty. Ve Francii se klade větší důraz na jazykovou stránku poezie. V naší znalosti francouzské poezie vznikla mezera a tu bylo třeba zaplnit. Antologie obsahuje ukázky z tvorby 14 současných francouzských básníků. Svazek seznamuje čtenáře jednak s předchůdci dnešní francouzské poezie (Char, Ponge, Michaux), dále s básníky narozenými ve 20. letech i se současnými nadějnými autory. Editor Aleš Pohorský. Kniha je doplněna fotografiemi Paříže od Barbary Huckové.

Výbor básní francouzského autora z let 1953 – 1983, jehož základní podobu stanovil autor sám. – Doslov Jiří Pechar.

Ještě jednou se pokusit zachytit tu nevysvětlitelnou radost při pohledu na kvetoucí strom, hory proti světlu, bystřinu na úpatí skal; to nejasné volání, které přiměje zastavit se a naslouchat; ten pocit, že se svět jako otevře, nepanuje smrt, vše drží pohromadě, svěží, jako dívky v tanci na Botticelliho obraze. To je snahou stárnoucího básníka: na svých toulkách alpskou krajinou slovy uchopit ony okamžiky přízemní transcendence, tady a teď, a ne mimo náš svět. Francouzský básník švýcarského původu Philippe Jaccottet (nar. 1925), známý u nás již z výboru Myšlenky pod mraky a jiné básně (Torst 1997), se ve svých pozdních básnických prózách Sešit zeleně (1990) a Po mnoha letech (1994) pokouší za neustálého reflektování přiléhavosti básnické řeči vyjádřit svou transcendentální zkušenost skutečnosti. Autor řazený k tzv. kritickému lyrismu zde v psaní, střídajícím pasáže jednou více úvahové a jednou více básnické, nechává nahlédnout do procesu tvorby, která se úzkostlivě střeží lacinosti a falešnosti. Sledujeme básníkovo živé myšlení, které postupuje od jednoho básnického obrazu k druhému, zkouší je, zavrhuje, obměňuje – bere je nikoli jako estetický cíl, ale jako krok v přibližování se ke skutečnosti, na jehož konci je ticho.

After several years abroad, a young man returns to his hometown to seek the man he calls master. This master, a brilliant philosopher, had made the young man into a disciple before sending him out into the world to put his teachings into practice. Returning three years later, the disciple finds his master has abandoned his wife and child and moved into a squalid one-room flat, cutting himself off completely from his former life. Disillusioned and reeling from the discovery, the young man spends an entire night listening to his master's bitter denunciation of the ideals they once shared. Obscurity, by noted thinker Philippe Jaccottet, is the story of this intense encounter between two men who were once very close and now must grapple with the fractured ideals that separate them. Written in 1960 during Jaccottet's period of poetic paralysis, the novel seeks to harmonize the best and worst of human nature--reconciling despair, falsehood, and lethargy of spirit with the need to remain open to beauty, truth, and the essential goodness of humankind. Translated by Tess Lewis, Obscurity is Jaccottet's only work of fiction, one that will introduce new readers to the multifaceted skills of this major poet. Praise for the French edition "In its haggard sobriety, the account of this tormented soul's monologue is staggering . . . a beautiful narrative, written in a resounding, solemn style."--La Table Ronde

A collection of travel writings by the Swiss-French poet that takes him through war-torn parts of the Middle East, where he attends to scenes of faith and history that often go unremarked amid the turmoil.

A meditation on the work of Italian artist Giorgio Morandi and its power to evoke a complexity of emotions and astonishment.In The Pilgrim’s Bowl , Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet examines Giorgio Morandi’s ascetic still lifes, contrasting his artistic approach to the life philosophies of two authors whom he cherished, Pascal and Leopardi, and reflecting on the few known autobiographical details we know about Morandi. In this small and erudite tome, Jaccottet draws us into the very heart of the artist’s calm and strangely haunting oeuvre. In his literary criticism, Jaccottet is known for deeply engaging with the work of his fellow poets and tenaciously seeking the essence of their poetics. In this, his only book-length essay devoted to an artist, his critical prose likewise blends empathy, subtle discernment, and a determination to pinpoint, or at least glimpse, the elusive underlying qualities of Morandi's deceptively simple, dull-toned yet mysteriously luminous paintings. The Pilgrim’s Bowl is a remarkably elucidating study based on a profound admiration for and a dialogue with Morandi’s oeuvre.

The second volume of notes and reflections from one of Switzerland's most prominent and prolific men of letters. One of Europe's finest contemporary poets, Jaccottet is a writer of exacting attention. Through keen observations of the natural world, art, literature, and music, and reflections on the human condition, Jaccottet opens his readers' eyes to the transcendent in everyday life. The Second Seedtime is a collection of "things seen, things read, and things dreamed." The volume continues the project Jaccottet began three decades earlier in his first volume of notebooks, Seedtime. Here, again, he gathers flashes of beauty dispersed around him like seeds that may blossom into poems or moments of inspiration. He returns, insistently, to such literary touchstones as Dante, Montaigne, Góngora, Goethe, Kierkegaard, Hölderlin, Michaux, Hopkins, Brontë, and Dickinson, as well as musical greats including Bach, Monteverdi, Purcell, and Schubert. The Second Seedtime is the vivid chronicle of one man's passionate engagement with the life of the mind, the spirit, and the natural world.

Philippe Jaccottet's poetry is meditative, immediate and sensuous, rooted in the Drome region of south-east France, which gives it a rich sense of place. This book brings together his reflections on landscape in the prose pieces of Beauregard (1980) and in the poems of Under Clouded Skies (1983), two thematically linked collections.

The narrative reflects on the author's struggle to articulate thoughts and feelings over three years, initially inspired by friendship. It captures the essence of a journey marked by dissatisfaction with a draft and the weight of unfulfilled promises. This work, now published, serves as a testament to the author's desire to express what has been important to him, highlighting themes of memory, friendship, and the urgency of communication before it becomes impossible.