The first English translation of Yves Bonnefoy’s account of his life as a traveler.
The Wandering Life is a poetic culmination of Yves Bonnefoy’s wanderings and characterizes the final twenty-five years of his work. Bonnefoy was an ardent traveler throughout his life, and his journeys in foreign countries left a profound imprint on his work. The time he spent in Italy, translating Shakespeare’s work in England, in universities in the United States, in India with Octavio Paz, and more, affected his poetry in discernible ways and inspired The Wandering Life. Interweaving verse and prose—vignettes that range from a few lines in length to several pages—this volume is a fitting capstone to Bonnefoy’s oeuvre and appears in English translation for the first time to mark the centenary of Yves Bonnefoy’s birth.
The Wandering Life is a poetic culmination of Yves Bonnefoy’s wanderings and characterizes the final twenty-five years of his work. Bonnefoy was an ardent traveler throughout his life, and his journeys in foreign countries left a profound imprint on his work. The time he spent in Italy, translating Shakespeare’s work in England, in universities in the United States, in India with Octavio Paz, and more, affected his poetry in discernible ways and inspired The Wandering Life. Interweaving verse and prose—vignettes that range from a few lines in length to several pages—this volume is a fitting capstone to Bonnefoy’s oeuvre and appears in English translation for the first time to mark the centenary of Yves Bonnefoy’s birth.
Table of Contents
THE WANDERING LIFE
‘READ THE BOOK!’
THE WANDERING LIFE
The Colour Alchemist
The Wandering Life
All Morning in the City
The Northern Fire
Strabo the Geographer
Glaucus the God
As Far as I Know You
The Clock
Sugarfoot
Impressions at Sunset
Huge Red Rocks
Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
All the Gold in the World
THE GRAPES OF ZEUXIS
The Grapes of Zeuxis
The Dogs
The Top of The World
Night
The Task of Non-Existence
The Blind Man
The Incision
The Book
They Spoke to Me
THE GRAPES OF ZEUXIS AGAIN
Incompletable
The Painter’s Despair
The Museum
Nocturnal Justice
Homage
The Great Image
The Crucifix
The Grapes of Zeuxis Again
She Who Invented Painting
LAST GRAPES OF ZEUXIS
I. Zeuxis, despite the birds
II. He caught his breath
III. And what a surprise it was
IV. Not even those weighty clusters
V. Now, he paints in peace
VI. Long, long hours
VII. Ah, what’s happened?
VIII. Zeuxis wanders in the countryside
IX. It’s something akin to a puddle
FROM WIND AND SMOKE
A STONE
TWO MUSICIANS, THREE PERHAPS
Two Musicians, Three Perhaps
Three Memories of the Journey
Two Sentences, and Others
Hands That Take Hold of His
Zeuxis: The Self-Portrait
BECKETT’S DINGHY
ANOTHER ERA OF WRITING
‘Bonnefoy the Voyager: An Afterword’ by Hoyt Rogers
‘READ THE BOOK!’
THE WANDERING LIFE
The Colour Alchemist
The Wandering Life
All Morning in the City
The Northern Fire
Strabo the Geographer
Glaucus the God
As Far as I Know You
The Clock
Sugarfoot
Impressions at Sunset
Huge Red Rocks
Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
All the Gold in the World
THE GRAPES OF ZEUXIS
The Grapes of Zeuxis
The Dogs
The Top of The World
Night
The Task of Non-Existence
The Blind Man
The Incision
The Book
They Spoke to Me
THE GRAPES OF ZEUXIS AGAIN
Incompletable
The Painter’s Despair
The Museum
Nocturnal Justice
Homage
The Great Image
The Crucifix
The Grapes of Zeuxis Again
She Who Invented Painting
LAST GRAPES OF ZEUXIS
I. Zeuxis, despite the birds
II. He caught his breath
III. And what a surprise it was
IV. Not even those weighty clusters
V. Now, he paints in peace
VI. Long, long hours
VII. Ah, what’s happened?
VIII. Zeuxis wanders in the countryside
IX. It’s something akin to a puddle
FROM WIND AND SMOKE
A STONE
TWO MUSICIANS, THREE PERHAPS
Two Musicians, Three Perhaps
Three Memories of the Journey
Two Sentences, and Others
Hands That Take Hold of His
Zeuxis: The Self-Portrait
BECKETT’S DINGHY
ANOTHER ERA OF WRITING
‘Bonnefoy the Voyager: An Afterword’ by Hoyt Rogers