Homer goes all Gérard de Nerval.
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Tag Archives: poetry
Persephone Miel
I’m really very saddened to learn of the death of Persephone Miel two weeks ago. There’s little more to say than that, really – it’s a genuine loss, both on a professional and a personal level. I knew Persephone through friends, through her work, and through many lengthy conversations at conferences we both attended both in the US and elsewhere – conversations that ranged far and wide, and always left me feeling richer. I found her funny and engaging, knowledgeable and professional, generous and open, and I – like many others – shall miss her. My condolences to her family, friends and colleagues worldwide.
It happens I was recently reading a blog post about the Proserpine/Persephone myth, containing these lines by American poet and translator Roger Hunt Carroll, now brought back to mind by reading Doc Searls’ post on preserving Persephone’s work in cyberspace:
There can be no farewell:
I will come this way again in forms
created from other lives,
bound with lilac and softer flowers
whose breath will speak my advent and reprise.
Notes For “Anatole’s Tomb”
At university, I was blessed with a range of extraordinary and inspirational tutors. One of my favourites was Professor Patrick McGuinness, who encouraged – perhaps since he’s also a poet – nonlinear thinking, making of connections, and explorations. I was particularly struck and moved by his analysis of Mallarme’s Pour Un Tombeau D’Anatole – “210 sheets of pencilled notes towards a poem about the death of [his son] Anatole”. He subsequently translated the work. In 2002, a section of McGuinness’ translation was published in the LRB, along with brief notes. Having recently becoming a parent (with “Anatole” on the baby-naming shortlist…), I wanted to re-read it. It still shatters, moves, uplifts me, because of rather than despite its broken form, and I encourage you to read it.
