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Robert Desnos a vécu mille vies – écrivain, critique de cinéma, chroniqueur radio, résistant de la première heure –, sans jamais se départir de sa soif de liberté.
Pour raconter l’histoire extraordinaire de ce dormeur éveillé, Gaëlle Nohant épouse ses pas ; comme si elle avait écouté les battements de son cœur, s’était assise aux terrasses des cafés en compagnie d’Éluard ou de García Lorca, avait tressailli aux anathèmes d’André Breton, fumé l’opium avec Yvonne George, et dansé sur des rythmes endiablés au Bal Blomet aux côtés de Kiki et de Jean-Louis Barrault. S’identifiant à Youki, son grand amour, la romancière accompagne Desnos jusqu’au bout de la nuit.
Légende d’un dormeur éveillé révèle le héros irrésistible derrière le poète et ressuscite une époque incandescente et tumultueuse, des années folles à l’Occupation.
Gaëlle Nohant: Née à Paris en 1973, Gaëlle Nohant vit aujourd’hui à Lyon. Légende d’un dormeur éveillé est son troisième roman après L’Ancre des rêves (prix Encre Marine, 2007) et La Part des flammes (prix France Bleu/Page des libraires, 2015 et prix du Livre de Poche, 2016).
Gaëlle Nohant
Légende d’un dormeur éveillé
Roman
544 pages
23€
Paru le 17 août 2017
Illustration de couverture © Letizia Goffi
Éditions Héloïse d’Ormesson
ISBN : 978-2-35087-419-7
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De Jasmijnrevolutie, de Egyptische Revolutie, Euromaidan: het is nu moeilijk voor te stellen dat de Russische Revolutie, precies een eeuw geleden, beloofde de laatste revolutie te zijn.
Ondanks bolsjewistisch optimisme en dromen van gelijkheid bracht zij evengoed, net als andere opstanden, een angstaanjagende vernietiging van vrijheid, waarden en waarheid.
Revoluties bleven volgen.
Vragen over mens en maatschappij blijven onopgelost. Vanwaar revoluties? Welke machten bevrijden en welke onderdrukken?
Wat leren we uit het feit dat de Franse Revolutie eindigde in een bloedbad, de Russische Revolutie verwerd tot totalitarisme, maar de Amerikaanse Revolutie succesvol was?
Op zaterdag 18 november brengt Nexus gezaghebbende denkers, politici, wetenschappers en ideologen van over de hele wereld bijeen voor een gezamenlijke zoektocht naar antwoorden, ideeën en argumenten.
Wat voor vrijheidsbeweging wacht de 21e eeuw? En wie zijn de individuen die tegen gevestigde machten in durven denken, die wel in opstand komen? Waar halen zij die kracht vandaan? Wat zal de ware laatste revolutie zijn?
Deelnemers
Antony Blinken – diplomaat en strateeg van Clinton en Obama
Aleksandr Dugin – politiek filosoof en adviseur van Poetin
William Fallon – oud-bevelhebber Amerikaanse strijdkrachtenDeelnemers
Sjeik Rached Ghannouchi – toppoliticus en leider Tunesische revolutie
Aileen Kelly – expert Russische intellectuele geschiedenis
Pankaj Mishra – essayist en romancier
Moisés Naím – Venezolaans staatsman en politiek filosoof
Nelofer Pazira – Afghaans-Canadees filmmaker en schrijver
Shaha Riza – Arabisch activist
Dominique de Villepin – Frans staatsman en diplomaat
Leon Wieseltier – publiek intellectueel
Michael Žantovský – diplomaat, vertaler, woordvoerder en vriend van Václav Havel
Zhang Weiwei – filosoof van China als belangrijkste supermacht
Conferentie
The Last Revolution
Nexus-conferentie 2017
Zaterdag 18 november 2017
9.30 — 16.00 uur
Nationale Opera & Ballet
Amsterdam
# meer info op website nexus instituut
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The Board of Trustees of the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade has chosen the Canadian author, essayist and poet Margaret Atwood to be the recipient of this year’s Peace Prize.
The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, October 15, 2017, the final day of the Frankfurt Book Fair, at the Church of St. Paul in Frankfurt am Main. The ceremony will be broadcast live on German public television. The Peace Prize has been awarded since 1950 and is endowed with a sum of €25,000.
In her wide range of novels, essays and volumes of poetry, Canadian author Margaret Atwood has demonstrated a keen political intuition and a deeply perceptive ability to detect dangerous and underlying developments and tendencies.
Margaret Eleanor Atwood was born in Ottawa on November 18, 1939 and spent the first part of her childhood in the forests of northern Quebec, where her father conducted research as an entomologist. During this time, she and her older brother and younger sister were taught at home by their mother. In 1946, when her father took up a position at the University of Toronto, Atwood began attending regular school for the first time. From 1957 to 1962, she studied English and literature at universities in Toronto and Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1963, she got her professional life underway at a market research company, and in 1964, she began working as a professor of literature at various universities.
Atwood started publishing her first poems (see »The Circle Game«) in the early 1960s in what she referred to as a »private printing press«. She then continued to make an increasingly respected name for herself throughout the 1970s with a number of further volumes of poetry. It was at this time in her career that she began to focus on writing novels. Today, she is considered the most important and most successful author in Canada. Her work, which comprises novels, short stories, essays, poetry, stage plays, screenplays and children’s books, has been translated into more than 30 languages.
Atwood achieved far-reaching national and international recognition with the publication of her first work of literary criticism, »Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature« (1972), in which she examined the role of Canadian literature and literary history with tremendous wit and concision. She followed that up with her first two novels, »The Edible Woman« (1969) and »Surfacing« (1972), in which she explored the perception of women’s role in modern Canada.
In 1985, Atwood published »The Handmaid’s Tale«, a dystopian novel in the tradition of George Orwell. The novel depicts a totalitarian society in which women are meticulously oppressed and used as birth machines. By taking up certain social tendencies of her day and following their logic to its latent conclusion, Atwood was able to create a novel of timeless relevance. The Handmaid’s Tale brought her to the peak of her already impressive literary career, and in 1989, German director Volker Schlöndorff even directed a film version. Today, precisely due to its enduring topicality, the novel is back on bestseller lists and experiencing a renaissance in American society under Donald Trump.
After »Cat’s Eye« (1988), which explores the childhood and friendship of two women in post-war Canada, and »The Robber Bride« (1993), in which she examines women’s darker side, Atwood published »Alias Grace« (1996), a historical fiction about a mysterious girl sentenced to life in prison for murder in the mid 19th century. After »The Blind Assassin« (2000), a broad portrait of Canadian society in the 20th century that garnered her the Booker Prize for Fiction, she shifted her focus to themes of ecological devastation and dangerous social tendencies in the post-apocalyptic worlds of her end-of-times trilogy »Oryx und Crake« (2003), »The Year of the Flood« (2009) and »MaddAddam« (2013). Known today for being an author and an environmental activist, Atwood coined the term »speculative fiction« to describe her work, although nothing she describes in her novels is pure invention. She takes a similar approach in her socially critical work »Payback. Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth« (2008), a collection of lectures in which she examines the preconditions and consequences of the global financial crisis. Drawing on facts from cultural history, literature and linguistics, she spotlights the concept of economic and moral guilt found in the economic disaster.
In the past several years, Atwood had rounded out her literary oeuvre with a number of works, including »Scribbler Moon«, a novel that will be published no sooner than 2114 as part of the Future Library Project. She also published »The Tent« (2006) and »Stone Mattress« (2014), as well as the novels »The Heart Goes Last« (2015) and »Hag-Seed« (2016). In addition to writing, Atwood continues to be active both politically and socially. In Germany, the latest product of her efforts is a volume of collected essays translated into German and set for publication in November 2017; »Aus Neugier und Leidenschaft« presents the cosmos of Margaret Atwood, including reviews, travel reports, writings on ecological themes and short stories. In May 2017, Atwood joined Salman Rushdie at the head of a campaign to garner support and higher levels of attention for authors suffering persecution and censorship. The campaign involves more than 200 writers and artists belonging to PEN International.
Margaret Atwood lives in Toronto with her second husband, the writer Graeme Gibson. Toronto is also the home of the Margaret Atwood Society, an organization dedicated to international scholarship and discourse on her work, for which she has received several honorary doctor titles.
# More info on website ‘Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels’
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Porte du second infini
À Antonin Artaud
L’encrier périscope me guette au tournant
mon porte-plume rentre dans sa coquille
La feuille de papier déploie ses grandes ailes blanches
Avant peu ses deux serres
m’arracheront les yeux
Je verrai que du feu mon corps
feu mon corps !
Vous eûtes l’occasion de le voir en grand appareil
le jour de tous les ridicules
Les femmes mirent leurs bijoux dans leur bouche
comme Démosthène
Mais je suis inventeur d’un téléphone de
verre de Bohême et de
tabac anglais
en relation directe
avec la peur !
Robert Desnos (1900 – 1945)
Porte du second infini
À Antonin Artaud
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Soul of a Nation shines a bright light on the vital contribution of Black artists to a dramatic period in American art and history
The show opens in 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights movement and its dreams of integration. In its wake emerged more militant calls for Black Power: a rallying cry for African American pride, autonomy and solidarity, drawing inspiration from newly independent African nations.
Artists responded to these times by provoking, confronting, and confounding expectations. Their momentum makes for an electrifying visual journey. Vibrant paintings, powerful murals, collage, photography, revolutionary clothing designs and sculptures made with Black hair, melted records, and tights – the variety of artworks reflects the many viewpoints of artists and collectives at work during these explosive times.
Some engage with legendary figures from the period, with paintings in homage to political leaders Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis, musician John Coltrane and sporting hero Jack Johnson. Muhammad Ali appears in Andy Warhol’s famous painting.
This landmark exhibition is a rare opportunity to see era-defining artworks that changed the face of art in America.
Book of the exhibtion:
Soul of a Nation
Art in the Age of Black Power
Edited with text by Mark Godfrey, Zoé Whitley. Contributions by Linda Goode Bryant, Susan E. Cahan, David Driskell, Edmund Barry Gaither, Jae Jarrell, Wadsworth Jarrell, Samella Lewis.
Hbk, 8.5 x 10 in.
256 pgs
203 color – 33 bw.
9/26/2017
ISBN 9781942884170
$39.95
In the period of radical change that was 1963–83, young black artists at the beginning of their careers confronted difficult questions about art, politics and racial identity. How to make art that would stand as innovative, original, formally and materially complex, while also making work that reflected their concerns and experience as black Americans?
Soul of a Nation surveys this crucial period in American art history, bringing to light previously neglected histories of 20th-century black artists, including Sam Gilliam, Melvin Edwards, Jack Whitten, William T. Williams, Howardena Pindell, Romare Bearden, David Hammons, Barkley L. Hendricks, Senga Nengudi, Noah Purifoy, Faith Ringgold, Betye Saar, Charles White and Frank Bowling.
The book features substantial essays from Mark Godfrey and Zoe Whitley, writing on abstraction and figuration, respectively. It also explores the art-historical and social contexts with subjects ranging from black feminism, AfriCOBRA and other artist-run groups to the role of museums in the debates of the period and visual art’s relation to the Black Arts Movement. Over 170 artworks by these and many other artists of the era are illustrated in full color.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the first use of the term “black power” by student activist Stokely Carmichael; it will also be 50 years since the US Supreme Court overturned the prohibition of interracial marriage. At this turning point in the reassessment of African American art history, Soul of a Nation is a vital contribution to this timely subject.
Exhibition
Soul of a Nation:
Art in the Age of Black Power
Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Until 22 October 2017
# More information on website Tate Modern
African American art in the era of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers
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A firsthand account of the brutal conditions of the Spanish Civil War.
Homage to Catalonia is Orwell’s personal account of his observations in the Spanish Civil War. The book was first published in the United Kingdom in 1938.
In 1936, originally intending merely to report on the Spanish Civil War as a journalist, George Orwell found himself embroiled as a participant—as a member of the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unity.
Fighting against the Fascists, he described in painfully vivid and occasionally comic detail life in the trenches—with a “democratic army” composed of men with no ranks, no titles, and often no weapons—and his near fatal wounding. As the politics became tangled, Orwell was pulled into a heartbreaking conflict between his own personal ideals and the complicated realities of political power struggles.
Considered one of the finest works by a man V. S. Pritchett called “the wintry conscience of a generation,” Homage to Catalonia is both Orwell’s memoir of his experiences at the front and his tribute to those who died in what he called a fight for common decency. This edition features a new foreword by Adam Hochschild placing the war in greater context and discussing the evolution of Orwell’s views on the Spanish Civil War.
“One of Orwell’s very best books and perhaps the best book that exists on the Spanish Civil War.” — The New Yorker
George Orwell (1903-1950) served with the Imperial Police in Burma, fought with the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, and was a member of the Home Guard and a writer for the BBC during World War II. He is the author of many works of non-fiction and fiction.
Homage to Catalonia
George Orwell
Penguin Classics
2013
256 Pages
£6.99
Paperback
ISBN10 0141393025
ISBN13 9780141393025
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
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Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945) wordt in 1919 lid van de ‘Groninger Kunstkring De Ploeg’.
Men waardeert hem vooral als drukker. In 1922, wanneer hij zakelijk een stap terug moet doen, maakt Werkman kennis met het gebruik van typografisch zetmateriaal als vorm van drukkunst. Hij begint de mogelijkheden ervan te onderzoeken.
De eerste proeve van zijn kunnen is de uitgave van The Next Call, een serie van negen achtbladige cahiers bestaande uit teksten en abstracte composities die hij tussen 1923 en 1926 aan vrienden en andere mogelijk geïnteresseerden toestuurt. Talrijk zijn de aanwijzingen dat Werkman zich daarbij heeft laten inspireren door het dadaïstische en constructivistische idioom van de internationale avant-garde. Een modernistisch tijdschrift als een van de vele andere is The Next Call niet. Teksten en druksels laten zien dat het gaat over Werkman zelf, over wat hem in deze cruciale periode van zijn leven wezenlijk beroert
Peter Jordens:
Hendrik Werkman en De Ploeg.
The Next Call en het constructivisme
Dit boek verschijnt in oktober 2017
€ 22,50
ISBN 9789462582286
Formaat: 20 x 26,5 cm
Aantal pagina’s 176
In samenwerking met Museum Belvédère
Circa 150 afbeeldingen in kleur
Jaar 2017
Uitvoering: Gebonden
Uitg.: wbooks
new books
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German Neo-Expressionist painter, sculptor and jazz drummer A.R. Penck has died in Zürich at the age of seventy seven. His German gallerist said the cause of his death was complications of a stroke.
Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, was born in Dresden, Germany. After failing admission to the fine-arts academies in Dresden and East Berlin, Penck worked for several years in a lot of jobs.
In the early 1970s he met with a group of neo-expressionist painters in Dresden. Penck became later one of the exponents of the new figuration alongside with Jörg Immendorff, Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz. In the late 1970s he was shown in West Berlin and was seen as an exponent of free speech in the East. In the 1980s Penck’s work was shown by major museums and galleries in the western world.
Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, Mike Hammer, T. M., Mickey Spilane, Theodor Marx, “a. Y.” or just “Y” died last week in Zürich.
In Memoriam A. R. Penck (1939–2017)
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Pulitzer Prizes
Pulitzer Prize administrator Mike Pride has announced today (april 10) the winners of the 2017 Pulitzer Prizes in the World Room at Columbia University in New York, N.Y.
This announcement marks the 101st year of the prizes. The Pulitzer Prizes have been awarded by Columbia University each spring since 1917.
The awards are chosen by a board of jurors for Journalism, Letters, Music and Drama.
The 2017 Winners in Letters, Drama and Music:
Fiction
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
From prize-winning, bestselling author Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave’s adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South.
Poetry
Olio by Tyehimba Jess
Part fact, part fiction, Tyehimba Jess’s much anticipated second book weaves sonnet, song, and narrative to examine the lives of mostly unrecorded African American performers, musicians and artists directly before and after the Civil War up to World War I. Olio is an effort to understand how they met, resisted, complicated, co-opted, and sometimes defeated attempts to minstrelize them.
History
Blood in the Water: The Atica Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy by Heather Ann Thompson
On September 9, 1971, nearly 1,300 prisoners took over the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York to protest years of mistreatment. Drawing from more than a decade of extensive research, historian Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on every aspect of the uprising and its legacy, giving voice to all those who took part in this forty-five-year fight for justice.
Nonfiction
Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Staff Pick: In this brilliant, heartbreaking book, Matthew Desmond takes us into the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee to tell the story of eight families on the edge.
Biography or Autobiography
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land in Between by Hisham Matar
The Return is at once an exquisite meditation on history, politics, and art, a brilliant portrait of a nation and a people on the cusp of change, and a disquieting depiction of the brutal legacy of absolute power. Above all, it is a universal tale of loss and love and of one family’s life.
List of all this years Pulitzer Prize winners:
Journalism
Public Service: The staff of the New York Daily News and ProPublica.
Breaking News Reporting: The staff of East Bay Times.
Investigative Reporting: Eric Eyre, the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
Explanatory Reporting: The Panama Papers, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, McClatchy and the Miami Herald.
Local Reporting: The staff of The Salt Lake Tribune.
National Reporting: David Fahrenthold, The Washington Post.
International Reporting: The staff of The New York Times.
Feature Writing: C.J. Chivers of The New York Times.
Commentary: Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal.
Criticism: Hilton Als, The New Yorker.
Editorial Writing: Art Cullen, The Storm Lake Times.
Editorial Cartooning: Jim Morin, Miami Herald.
Breaking News Photography: Daniel Berehulak, The New York Times.
Feature Photography: E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune.
Letters, Drama, & Music
Fiction: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead.
Drama: Sweat, by Lynn Nottage.
History: Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson.
Biography or Autobiography: The Return, by Hisham Matar.
Poetry: Olio, by Tyehimba Jess.
General Nonfiction: Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond.
Music: Angel’s Bone, by Du Yun.
# more information on website pulitzer
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Unveiling of the Stele for the year 2015-2016 # Reporter’s Memorial Tenth anniversary # Reporter’s Memorial – 17 00 – Thursday 6 October 2016
Ten years ago, the Reporter’s Memorial was inaugurated in Bayeux. Upon the unveiling of the 2015 stele, Reporters Without Borders will gather families and loved ones of the journalists killed on the job in the last ten years.
In 2015, 110 journalists have perished because of their profession or in dubious circumstances. Reporters Without Borders assures that of those 110, 67 have been killed for the sole reason of being journalists. In total, 787 journalists have been killed on the job since 2005. To that number, 27 netizens and 7 media associates can be added. This worrisome situation can be explained by the peak of violence against journalists in the last decade. They are now deliberately targeted and all the efforts put toward their safety have failed so far.
« It is imperative to set up a concrete mechanism for the application of the international law for the protection of journalists », declares Christophe Deloire, General Secretary of Reporters Without Borders. « Today, violent non-state actors have targeted journalists while numerous states do not respect their obligations. More than 800 reporters have been killed in the last ten years. Their death must be met with reactions that match the urgency of the situation. A special representative for the protection of journalists with the United Nation Secretary must be immediately appointed. »
Families have decided to create a stele for all the reporters who disappeared while on a mission. This monument entitled “Missing In Action”, will be placed and inaugurated this year. It takes the form of a shadow and symbolizes the absence of those whose bodies have never been found.
Present will be: Diane Foley, Claudine Kent (companion of David Gilkey dead in Afghanistan), Maryvonne Lepage, Deo Namujimbo, Elena Milachina for remembering Anna Politkoskaïa assasinated 10 years ago.
Mémorial des reporters
Boulevard Fabian Ware
Direct access from rue de Verdun, Bayeux FR
Free admission
# more information on website Prix Bayeux – Calvados (des correspondents de guerre)
# more information on Reporters without Borders
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Photos: Jef van Kempen (FdM 2016)
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Max Jacob
(1876 – 1944)
Adieux
Le canapé des deux bras tendus pour les adieux ! L’autre canapé, dos, celui des paupières rougies sur un coussin ! L’officier de spahis de l’aquarelle va de l’un à l’autre et la dame en velours noir en sens inverse. L’aquarelle n’est pas achevée. Celui qui m’enseigna cette horreur, les haines souriantes et les silences méprisants me dit : « Avant d’aller à Longchamp il faudra que j’achète à ma femme une bouteille de Bordeaux pour que je ne l’accompagne pas ». Et l’on jouait derrière le mur les grelots de Beethoven de la sonate : les Adieux! Adieux de ma jeunesse, quels espoirs et quels désespoirs près du vieux pont près de l’Enseigne marron qui surplombe la rivière de ses lettres blanches : Liqueurs, Vins, Spiritueux en tous genres. Quels troubles et quelles amertumes dans ces départs vers la misère interrompue. Reste le témoin de tous mes adieux.
Aquarelle inachevée et vous grelots de Beethoven redites-moi ces Adieux ! ceux que je fais au monde pour toujours sans doute.
La lune est morte ; elle ressuscite ; le soleil se couche et se lève. Quand il se couche, c’est une fête pour tous les démons de la nuit, ils allument des feux de Bengale dans le ciel et sur les glaciers. Quand il se lève, ce sont les anges qui apportent les rideaux afin qu’il fasse sa toilette dans les fleuves et son entrée dans les palais. La lune ne meurt qu’une fois par mois et chaque fois c’est un deuil complet.
*
La littérature chandail le style à la cuve.
*
Le paysan vient voir son père de quatre-vingt-trois ans, qui a fait une chute et a tout un côté paralysé :
— Je ne t’ai jamais rien appris et tu sais tout faire. Eh ! bien, ma montre : j’peux pas me retourner, j’peux plus voir l’heure. Accroche-la moi au mur, plante un clou près de ma tête. Là… Est-il bien solide, ton clou ?
— Tu peux y mettre cent kilos que le clou ne era pas.
— S’il peut porter cent kilos, il pourra bien porter une montre. J’aime bien ce qui est solide.
Ceci dit, il ferma les yeux et mourut.
*
Un critique bienveillant affirme que les héros de M’X… l’écrivain ont les trois dimensions. Moi, je prétends que s’ils n’ont pas la quatrième ils n’existent pas.
*
Pour toucher les hommes il faut être un homme. N.S.J.C. a créé et pratiqué cette vérité.
Les voici bien ! mais transfigurés par un séjour entre les livres.
*
Encore un peu plus bas ! plus au fond ! là, maintenant éloigne-les ! place-les au-dessus.
Dans le fameux tableau : la Justice et la Vengeance poursuivant le Crime, l’une des figures célestes tient une lampe à abat-jour vert, l’autre essaie d’ouvrir un parapluie malgré le vent.
*
Les enterrements fréquents sont les lieux où la ville entière se réunit et où se manifestent dans les cortèges les sympathies et naissent les antipathies.
Moïse B… est marié. Sa femme est partie après trois mois de mariage. La belle-mère seule compte dans la maison. Le fils était toujours près de sa mère, jamais avec sa femme.
*
On appelle éphémères des insectes qui ne peuvent ni se nourrir ni vivre n’ayant ni bouche, ni estomac.
#
Ne pas laisser les vaches dans le pâtis. Elles ont vite fait en un jour de le gâcher, de le manger, le fouler ; mais diviser le pâtis en parties, les enfermer dans un coin grillagé, le lendemain dans un autre. Les coins se refont et on remet ça la semaine suivante.
*
Jean emmène Jules voir sa fille à Paris dans son auto. Sa femme intervient : elle ne veut pas, fait observer que sa fille est en examen. Nous revoyons Jules très tenté, il donne en échange (car rien pour rien à la campagne) des légumes pour Germaine qui sera ravie.
C’est servi, les hommes ! si vous voulez boire maintenant, c’est le moment (propos de la femme du camionneur à des porteurs).
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Dites-donc ! jeune homme ! Vous ne pourriez déranger votre cheval, on ne va pas pouvoir sortir de mon établissement —
Je suis autorisé à aller cueillir des artichauts dans le jardin du propriétaire. C’est une fête, une récréation, un régal.
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Grand nombre d’alouettes dans les alentours de Jargeau. Jean Fraysse m’apprend que les alouettes pour sauver leurs petits font semblant d’aller les rejoindre ailleurs qu’ils ne sont. Le chasseur les suit. Les perdrix font de même. Samuel Buder fait allusion à ce fait dans ses aphorismes sur le mensonge quand il dit le mensonge naturel à l’univers.
Mr Lehman est un ancien gardien de la paix et huissier de ministre. Il raconte comme un cantonnier fit tant de barouf dans une antichambre qu’il obtint de Briand ce qu’il voulut.
Mme M… dont le mari est un ancien ouvrier sabotier devenu millionnaire.
« Ce Laval n’était jamais qu’un parvenu. »
La même ayant dit à une fille qu’elle était la fille
d’une cuisinière, celle-ci lui répondit : « Eh ! bien !
vous ne seriez pas même foutue de cuire un œuf à la
coque. »
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Il salua la foule qui le fixait et une fois à terre fit une quête dans toutes les maisons. Le soir il était ivre mort.
Ces maisons au bord des fossés, quelle verdure, arbres et jardins ! Habiter là ! voir en se levant ces fruits, ces fleurs, ces oiseaux. Voilà où j’ai perdu ma matinée.
M’ Ch… à qui j’ai demandé la maison de la morte, m’a indiqué la maison de sa famille à lui soit avec intention soit parce que chacun est si préoccupé de soi-même, qu’il ne pense pas qu’autrui puisse penser à autre chose. Ces troix vieux ne pensent qu’à leur jardin et comme je les comprends. Nouvelles des uns et des autres, chacun parle de ses maladies et ne parle pas d’autre chose. Ici les gens ne vieillissent pas et se portent bien.
La maison de la morte ! il y a là une morte ? Les peupliers chantent, une barque était sur l’eau des fossés. « Non ! je ne voulais pas qu’on fasse le circuit dans mon atelier ! mes ouvriers le font en face ! “De la morte, pas question !” Il était temps qu’elle s’en aille. On n’a pas le droit de désirer la mort de quelqu’un, mais il valait mieux pour elle et pour tout le monde qu’elle s’en aille. » Et puis on a parlé « âges », « sciati-ques », « mariages », « naissances ». Et me revoici sous la pluie avec le souvenir de cet atelier de menuisier, cette odeur de bois frais, ces planches de bois précieux, ces jolis vieux meubles à réparer, ces meubles neufs pas encore colorés, les copeaux à terre. Les murs sont antiques avec des poutres rejointes par de la chaux, poutres tordues, grimaçantes et des recoins mystérieux. Dehors la verdure et les peupliers qui chantent. C’est tout au bout du bourg céleste. L’après-midi le fils promenait en toilette d’enterrement d’ailleurs des triangles de bois sculptés…
Les hommes qui disent le plus de mal des femmes sont ceux qui les ont le plus pratiquées. Ceux qui les respectent, trop seuls, en disent du bien. Ils ont raison.
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Max Jacob poetry
fleursdumal.nl magazine
More in: Archive I-J, Jacob, Max, REPRESSION OF WRITERS, JOURNALISTS & ARTISTS
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