The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

Renée Vivien (Pauline Tarn) 1877–1909

london, england

V

ivien was a prolific poet, one of the last to claim allegiance to the

Symbolist movement. She gained as much notoriety for her lifestyle as

for her writing, participating in the weekly Friday salon of Nathalie

Barney, her lover; eating almost nothing; and keeping mysterious assignations

(never elucidated to this day) that greatly provoked Barney. The two were leading

proponents of the ‘‘lesbian-chic’’ movement in Paris in the 1890s. Barney’s salon

drew such guests as Auguste Rodin, Rainier Maria Rilke, James Joyce, Gertrude

Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Max Jacob, André Gide, Sylvia Beach, and Mary McCarthy.

Although English was her native language, Vivien wrote exclusively in French.

Only the work Chansons (1907) bears her given name; she used the masculine

form of her pseudonym, ‘‘René,’’ to sign her first works of poetry. Principal

works: Brumes de fjords, 1902; Cendres et poussières, 1902; Du vert au violet, 1903;

Évocations, 1903; Sappho, 1903; La Vénus des aveugles, 1903; A l’heure des mains

jointes, 1906; Chansons pour mon ombre, 1907; Sillages, 1907; Flambeaux éteints,

1908; Haillons, 1910.

The Ransom

Come, let’s find the secret of the clear waters;
I’ll adore you, as a drowned person does the sea.

Those crabs whose hunger is sated on dead flesh
Will be our friendly escorts, in joy.

Queen, I raised to you this shining palace,
From the remains of a vessel shipwrecked at night...

The gardens of corals, anemones, and algae
Lose nothing from the autumn’s breath.

Laughing like harlequins in a burlesque,
We’ll mount astride the backs of sharks.