Description

Translated by Austin Carder. Introduction by Adonis (The Song Cave, paperback)

Publication Date: July 1, 2021

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When autumn sends a shiver

Down the mountain

Place the swans eye on your neck

Wondrous wind in the dead of night

I love you Ive been told

The first book-length translation of works by this important Egyptian-born, Lebanese-French poet,Poetriespresents the core of Georges Schehads (1905-1989) uvre. Though best known as a dramatist, Schehadwas first and foremost a poet. His lifework was the seven volumesof crystalline poems published over a span of nearly a half-century (1938-1985), each successive volume simply and enigmatically titledPoetries.It is from these seven books that our selection has been drawn.

In 1986, the Acadmie Franaise awarded Georges Schehad the inaugural Grand Prix de la Francophonie. Despite having received wide admirationfrom his contemporariesincluding Max Jacob, Octavio Paz, AndrBreton, and Paul luardthe poetry of Georges Schehad is virtually unknowntoday, with this collection being the very first translatedinto English.In his translators note, Austin Carder calls this collection a lullaby or an enigmatic fairy tale told before bed. Its tone is one of self-sufficient prayera pronouncement rather than a pleaaddressed to no one in particular and to anyone. These weathered songs key into the language of music, not by approximating its effects but by innervating sparks of meaning that flash forthSchehads broken-off parables convulse with the dual beauty of both hymn and elegy.

As a key member of the Surrealists, Schehad helped define 20th century French avant-garde poetryin part, because his work overflows the Surrealist ethos, entering territory that is both more vulnerable and more eerie. Carder perfectly captures his unique flavor; as he says in his excellent translators note, strict faithfulness would have meant a greater betrayal. His translations take the risk of attending to the spirit as well as to the letter, and the result is a text that thrives in its new language, radiating the brilliance of the freshly minted. Cole Swensen

Austin Carders metabolic recasting of the hithertobarely noticed poetryof Georges Schehadreveals his integral devotion to the vitality ofhiscraft. Thesearewondrous, sublime, and delicate events of a poetic passing-through. Irakli Qolbaia

Floating up as if from the weave of the page itself, these perfectly pitched versions of Georges SchehadsLes Posiesconvey a mysterious sense of the inevitable. One couldnt ask more of a translation, and with the gift of this one Austin Carder gives us (and English) a haunting new poet of magical clarity and uncanny quiet. This is a beautiful book.Peter Cole

Austin Carders lucid translations of Schehads poems convey the melancholy of the original in an English that gives rise to its own compelling melody.A good translator is a good listener, and Carder listens closely to the French original before he breathes his translations into life: Listen through the branches / for the golden sound of a dying tree. There is a quiet beauty to these translations, and a stark simplicity; Carder knows that staying true to the spirit of the original text is the best way to let a translation sing with its own convincing, and equally original, voice.Charlotte Mandell