Already author in 2012 of a manual of "poesietherapy", Jean-Joseph Julaud has just published an "Anthology of French poetry" illustrated with watercolors by Pierre Fouillet (First Editions, 14.95 euros, and 10.99 euros in digital ). He selects for us five poems very useful in this stressful period and offers us a comment.
1. To celebrate life
"Au Cabaret-Vert, five o'clock in the evening" , by Arthur Rimbaud, "Cahier de Douai" (1870). Extract:
"Blessed, I stretched out my legs under the table
Green: I contemplated very naive subjects
Tapestry. - And it was adorable,
When the girl with huge nipples, with bright eyes,
- This one is not a kiss that scares him! (Editor's note: which scares him) -
Laughing, brought me slices of butter,
Lukewarm ham in a colorful dish. "
Jean-Joseph Julaud's comment: “This is what makes you want to live. Rimbaud is dealing with a servant, he sees a generous chest, it exhilarates him. It also evokes the pleasures of good food offered by the establishment and which appetites the reader. It is a poem full of vigor, very promising to break out of confinement and find accommodation in invigorating, reassuring areas, because life is always there. It gives energy and makes you smile. Cabaret-Vert really existed. It was green, inside and out. ”
2. To support containment
“Le Grillon” , by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian , “Fables; Book II ”(1793). Extract:
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"Oh ! Oh ! said the cricket, I am no longer angry;
It costs too much to shine in the world
How much I will love my deep retirement!
To live happy, live hidden."
Jean-Joseph Julaud's comment: “The author was the grand-nephew by marriage of Voltaire. The poem features a flying butterfly, which makes the cricket very unhappy to be confined in the grass. But now a group of children arrives and miseries the butterfly, tears its wings. Seeing this, the cricket reconsiders its situation. We can quite hear it today to the extent that the coronavirus may be a sacred bad butterfly too which we escape with confinement! Note that we owe to Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian many common expressions taken from his fables: Each his job and the cows will be well kept, the safest asylum is the breast of a mother, lighting your lantern, laughing well who laughs last… ”
3. To taste the simple things
"La Vie humble", by Paul Verlaine, "Sagesse" (1881). Extract:
"The humble life of boring and easy work
Is a work of choice that wants a lot of love.
Stay cheerful when the day, sad, succeeds the day,
To be strong, and to wear out in vile circumstances. ”
Jean-Joseph Julaud's comment: “Verlaine tells us that when you think about it, there is no need to look for the sparkle. This poem is very beautiful because it reminds us that life can be made of little things that make you happy. It's funny because he then confessed to having written these verses after "a severe confession". He would often go to confession but would start all over again, afterwards, to live as he wanted. This time, he had been seriously attacked by the confessor, had gone home sheepishly and had written this poem. ”
4. To dream of love
“Apparition”, by Stéphane Mallarmé , “Poésies” (1887). Extract:
"It was the blessed day of your first kiss.
My dreaming love to martyr myself
Skilfully intoxicated with the scent of sadness
That even without regret and without disappointment leaves
Picking a Dream from the heart that picked it. ”
Jean-Joseph Julaud's comment: "It is the ideal poem for dreaming because everyone carries with them the memory of their first kiss, which was nevertheless a splendid moment! This is exactly what Mallarmé reminds us of. In truth, he was in love with a girl who was 16 years old, and so was his friend Henri Cazalis, who was also a poet. Her name was Ettie Yapp. They had met her in the Fontainebleau forest, accompanied by her mother and her sister. For both of them, it represented an absolute ideal. In this poem, Mallarmé imagined this first kiss because it is only fictional. All his life, this Ettie will remain for him the feminine ideal. ”
5. To celebrate nature
"Correspondances", by Charles Baudelaire, "Les Fleurs du mal" (1857). Extract:
"Nature is a temple where living pillars
Sometimes let out confused words;
Man passes through forests of symbols
Which observe him with familiar eyes."
Jean-Joseph Julaud's comment: “Here, Baudelaire talks to us about nature and it is very current because we are rediscovering all the connections that exist between plants, animals and humans… Nature is reconsidered. It is once again becoming something that matters a lot, starting with these companies that integrate ecology and everything that makes us look to it today in a much more respectful way. ”