The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

PHILIPPE JACCOTTET

natural world. Jaccottet has won the Grand Prix de Poésie de Paris (1986), the

Grand Prix National de Traduction (1987), and the Prix Pétrarque (1988). Princi-

pal works: Requiem, 1947; L’E√raie et autres poésies, 1953; L’Ignorant, 1958; Airs,

1967; Leçons, 1969; Paysages aves figures absentes, 1970; A la lumière d’hiver, 1977;

Pensées sous les nuages, 1983; La Semaison, 1983; A travers un verger, 1984; Cahier

de verdure, 1990.

Serenity

The shadow within the light
like blue smoke
—martin sorrell

In the Steps of the Moon

Tonight, leaning at the window,
I saw that the world was weightless,
and its obstacles were gone.
All that holds us back in the daytime
seemed bound to carry me now
from one opening to the other,
from within a house of water
towards something weak and bright
as the grass I was about to enter,
fearless, giving thanks for earth’s freshness,
in the steps of the moon I said
yes and then o√ I went...
—edward lucie-smith

With E√ort, I Sit up and Look Outside

With e√ort, I sit up and look outside:
you might say there are three lights.
Light in the heavens, light from there
that flows in me and fades,
light’s shadow that my hand is tracing on the page.

Shadow turns to ink.

Surprise runs through me like this sky.