Ex Libris Kirkland

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Translator Donald Revell
First Written 1886
Genre Poetry
Origin France
Publisher Omnidawn
My Copy library paperback
First Read January 10, 2016

The Illuminations



But no: unmoved is the best word for my reaction here. I think I need a guide to this.

Noted on January 11, 2016

I find myself generally unmoved by nearly all French literature. So, in preparation for my short trip to Paris, I've been trying to be a little more targeted. How about poetry? How about the 19th century? I love English and Russian work from that period; maybe there's something French?

Noted on January 11, 2016

Seascape
Chariots of silver and copper-
Prows of steel and silver -
Stir up the spume, -
Uproot the stumps of brambles.
The currents of the moor,
And the long gashes of the ebb tide,
Go clockwise toward the east,
Towards the pillars of the forest,
Towards the pilings of the pier,
Whose corner is battered by whirlwinds of light.

Quoted on January 11, 2016

from Lives:
I am a greater inventor than any before me; a greater musician too, having found something like the key of love. At present, a gentleman-farmer of acid pastures and sober skies, I try to be moved by memories of my childhood spent begging on the roads, of my apprenticeship or of my first arrival in Paris in wooden shoes, my polemics, my five or six dead wives, and some binges when, no matter how much I drank, I could never laugh at the jokes of my companions. I do not miss my little portion of God's gaiety,; the sober air above these bitter pastures nurtures my skepticism. But seeing as how skepticism is useless, and as I am now wholly given over to new troubles, - I expect to become the very worst kind of madman.

Quoted on January 11, 2016


Ex Libris Kirkland is a super-self-absorbed reading journal made by Matt Kirkland. Copyright © 2001 - .
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