The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

André Frénaud 1907–1993

montceau-les-mines, france

F

rénaud studied law and philosophy at the University of Lvov, where he

served as a teacher. He also worked in the Ministry of Public Works

before enlisting in the military in 1940. Soon after joining the war, he was

captured and imprisoned; he wrote his first poetry collection in a German

prisoner-of-war camp. In 1942, after two years in captivity, Frénaud returned to

Paris to join the Resistance. In his work, Frénaud combatted his profound pessi-

mism by identifying with the joyful facets of life. Principal works: Les Rois mages,

1966; Il n’y a pas de paradis, 1962; L’Étape dans la clairière, 1966; La Sainte face,

1968; Depuis toujours déjà, 1970; Notre inhabileté fatale, 1979; La Sorcière de Rome,

1979; Haeres, 1982; Nul ne s’égare, 1986; Les Gloses à la sorcière, 1995.

Toast in Response

To impossible challenges.
To two so distant deserts.
To the light separating them.
To the uncertain jewels of the abyss.
To the truth of a crazed approach.
To the meditation of fire.
To the unacceptable. To thankfulness.
To exchange. To restoration.
To migration together.
To the shared access.
To you. To me.
—mary ann caws

Self-Creation

When they surfaced to drink,
I harpooned some of those night beasts of mine,
As they tried to get away.
I brought them back to the house.
You are my flesh and blood.
I call you by your name, my own.