Pierre Reverdy

Pierre Reverdy (13 September 1889 - 17 June 1960) was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism.

Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse and Narbonne.

Reverdy arrived in Paris in October 1910. It was there, at the famous Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre that he met Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Philippe Soupault and Tristan Tzara.

For sixteen years, Reverdy lived for his writing. His companions were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse and many others. These were the years in which surrealism took flight and Reverdy partly inspired it. In the first "Surrealist Manifesto", André Breton hailed Reverdy as "the greatest poet of the time," and Louis Aragon said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet." [ [http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852241543 Bloodaxe Books: Title Page > Pierre Reverdy: Selected Poems ] ]

In 1917, together with Max Jacob and Guillaume Apollinaire, Reverdy founded the influential journal "Nord-Sud" ("North-South") which contained many Dadaist and then surrealist contributions. It continued until 1918.

Reclusive by nature, Reverdy began to distance himself from these circles, and in 1926, at the age of 37, he left Paris, converted to Catholicism and went to live in Solesmes, home of the great St. Peter's Abbey. He stayed there until his death in 1960. During this time he wrote several collections including "Sources du vent", "Ferraille" and "Le Chant des morts".

Works

*1915 "Poèmes en prose" (Paris, Imprimerie Birault).
*1916 "La lucarne ovale" (Birault).
*1916 "Quelques poèmes" (Birault).
*1917 "Le voleur de Talan", roman (Avignon, Imprimerie Rullière).
*1918 "Les ardoises du toit", illustrated by Georges Braque (Birault).
*1918 "Les jockeys camouflés et période hors-texte", (Imprimerie F. Bernouard).
*1919 "La guitare endormie", (Imprimerie Birault).
*1919 "Self defence". Critique-Esthétique. (Birault).
*1921 "Étoiles peintes", (Paris, Sagittaire).
*1921 "Cœur de chêne", (Éditions de la Galerie Simon).
*1922 "Cravates de chanvre", (Éditions Nord-Sud).
*1924 "Pablo Picasso et son œuvre", in "Pablo Picasso"(Gallimard).
*1924 "Les épaves du ciel" (Gallimard).
*1925 "Écumes de la mer", (Gallimard).
*1925 "Grande nature" (Paris, Les Cahiers libres).
*1926 "La peau de l'homme", (Gallimard).
*1927 "Le gant de crin" (Plon).
*1928 "La balle au bond", (Marseille, Les Cahiers du Sud).
*1929 "Sources du vent", (Maurice Sachs éditeur).
*1929 "Flaques de verre" (Gallimard).
*1930 "Pierres blanches", (Carcassonne, Éditions d'art Jordy).
*1930 "Risques et périls", contes 1915-1928 (Gallimard).
*1937 "Ferraille" (Brussels).
*1937 Preface for "Déluges" by Georges Herment (José Corti).
*1940 "Plein verre" (Nice).
*1945 "Plupart du temps", poèmes 1915-1922, which collects "Poèmes en prose", "Quelques poèmes", "La lucarne ovale", "Les ardoises du toit", "Les jockeys camouflés", "La guitare endormie", "Étoiles peintes", "Cœur de chêne" et "Cravates de chanvre" (Gallimard, reedited in 1969 in the « Poésie » series).
*1945 Preface for "Souspente" by Antoine Tudal (Paris, Éditions R.J. Godet).
*1946 "Visages", (Paris, Éditions du Chêne).
*1948 "Le chant des morts", (Tériade éditeur).
*1948 "Le livre de mon bord", notes 1930-1936 (Mercure de France).
*1949 "Tombeau vivant", "Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori", in Tombeau de Jean-Sébastien Galanis (Paris, imprimé par Daragnès).
*1949 "Main d'œuvre", poèmes 1913-1949, which collects: "Grande nature", "La balle au bond", "Sources du vent", "Pierres blanches", "Ferraille", "Plein verre" and "Le chant des morts" and adds "Cale sèche" and "Bois vert", (Mercure de France).
*1950 "Une aventure méthodique", (Paris, Mourlot).
*1953 "Cercle doré", (Mourlot).
*1955 "Au soleil du plafond", (Tériade éditeur).
*1956 "En vrac" (Monaco, Éditions du Rocher).
*1959 "La liberté des mers", (Éditions Maeght).
*1962 "À René Char", (Alès, P. A. Benoît, poème épistolaire tiré à 4 ex.)
*1966 "Sable mouvant", (Paris, L. Broder éditeur).

Praise

A glass of papaya juice
and back to work. My heart is in my
pocket, it is Poems by Pierre Reverdy.
--Frank O'Hara, "A Step Away From Them" [ [http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Frank-OHara/4568 A Step Away From Them - A poem by Frank O'Hara - American Poems ] ]

"Reverdy's strange landscapes, which combine an intense inwardness with a proliferation of sensual data, bear in them the signs of a continual search for an impossible totality. Almost mystical in their effect, his poems are nevertheless anchored in the minutiae of the everyday world; in their quiet, at times monotone music, the poet seems to evaporate, to vanish into the haunted country he has created. The result is at once beautiful and disquieting as if Reverdy had emptied the space of the poem in order to let the reader inhabit it" --Paul Auster [ [http://www.bloodaxebooks.com/titlepage.asp?isbn=1852241543 Bloodaxe Books: Title Page > Pierre Reverdy: Selected Poems ] ]

Translations in English

English translations of Reverdy's work have appeared in a smattering of volumes over the years, most of which are now out of print but still available used. Beginning in the early sixties, several writers have produced translations of Reveredy's work, notably Kenneth Rexroth, John Ashbery, Mary Ann Caws, Patricia Ann Terry and, more recently, Ron Padgett.

* "Pierre Reverdy: Selected Poems" - translated by Kenneth Rexroth (New Directions, 1969)
* "Roof Slates and Other Poems of Pierre Reverdy" - translated by Caws & Terry (Northeastern Univ. Press, 1981)
* "Selected Poems by Pierre Reverdy" - edited by Timothy Bent and Germaine Brée (Wake Forest Univ. Press / Bloodaxe (UK), 1991)
* "Prose Poems" - translated by Ron Padgett (Black Square Editions, 2007)
* "Haunted House" (long prose poem) - translated by John Ashbery (Black Square Editions, 2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.bopsecrets.org/rexroth/essays/reverdy.htm The Cubist Poetry of Pierre Reverdy] - essay by Kenneth Rexroth (first published as the Introduction to "Selected Poems")
* [http://www.milkmag.org/reverdy.htm Pierre Reverdy translated by Tom Hibbard] - eight poems online at Milk Magazine
* [http://www.jubilat.org/n3/reverdy.html Excerpt from "Three Letters to Jean Rousselot" (1951)] - published in Jubilat 3
* [http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw/bw070628john_ashbery_and_ron Bookworm Interview with John Ashbery and Ron Padgett on the works of Pierre Reverdy] (June, 2007)
* [http://www.fudomouth.net/rhizome/reverdy.htm Pierre Reverdy: Seven Poems] at FudoMouth.net - translated by Kenneth Rexroth (from "Selected Poems")