René Char 1907–1988
île-sur-la-sorgue, france
C
har believed above all in the power of poetry and human morality. He
was greatly admired by writers, philosophers, and painters of many
nations and remains a towering poetic figure. His philosophy con-fronted political and moral uncertainties with a conviction born of action and
thought. He was born in Île-sur-la-Sorgue, where his father was mayor; the
family name was Charlemagne. Char published Ralentir travaux with Éluard and
Breton in 1930 but left the Surrealists in 1935, finding their games and group
experiments irrelevant to his thinking. From the front in Alsace, he played a
leading part in the Resistance, becoming known as ‘‘le Capitaine Alexandre.’’
After 1950, he concentrated on his writing and befriended the painters Joan Miró,
Georges Braque, Viera da Silva, and a host of others. Principal works: Arsenal,
1929; Artine, 1930; Le Marteau sans maître, 1934; Moulin premier, 1936; Seuls
demeurent, 1945; Les Matinaux, 1950; Fureur et mystère, 1948; Commune Présence,
1964; Retour amont, 1966; Le Nu perdu, 1971; La Nuit talismanique, 1972; Aromates
chasseurs, 1979; Les Voisinages de Van Gogh, 1985; Éloge d’une soupçonnée, 1988.
Restore to Them...
Restore to them what they have no longer.
They will see again the harvest grain enclosed in the stalk and swaying on the
grass.
Teach them, from the fall to the soaring, the twelve months of their face,
They will cherish their emptiness until their heart’s next desire;
For nothing is shipwrecked or delights in ashes;
And for the one who can see the earth’s fruitful end,
Failure is of no moment, even if all is lost.
—mary ann caws
The Swift
Swift whose wings are too wide, who spirals and cries out his joy around the
house. The heart is like that.