Of The Nature Of Things

Of The Nature Of Things
by Titus Lucretius Carus, Trans. By William Ellery Leonard

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About Book

Barbara Wright translator
My immediate reaction was: this must certainlly be "Ponge's voice in English."

Poetry Project Newsletter
Lovely prose poems . This book is considered by many to be the "keystone' of his work. Aptly translated. Highly Recommended

Book Description
Published in 1942 and considered the keystone of Francis Ponge's large body of work, Le parti pris des choses appears here in its entirety as The Nature of Things .Ponge's first full volume, it reveals his preoccupation with nature and its metaphoric transformation through the creative ambiguity of language. Language is both subject and means. For all the critical analysis devoted to this work, "never has the book been fully fathomed" Assessment of the translation by Barbara Wright-- Lee Fahnestock must certainly be "Ponge's voice in English". Several rereadings and a comparison with the French originals, confirmed this opinion. Ponge was the first modern poet to be moved to imagine the inner nature of objects-"things". Things animal - vegetable - mineral. Snails -moss - pebbles....Ponge's poetic intentions may seem very serious -and they are- but he expresses seriousness in a joyous, often insouciant style, full of humor, lighthearted word play, puns, alliteration, allusions, imaginative contrasts. And I feel that this unique combination has been reproduced with love and understanding by Lee Fahnestock. She gives us Ponge's tones, rhythms, humor. She has maneuvered his word play with respect and unostentatious discretion; she knows how to read between the lines. Here, to my mind, is indeed Ponge in English.

From the Publisher
This letter was received from Barbara Wright:The following is the text of a letter from award-winning translator Barbara Wright on Lee Fahnestock's translations of the poetry of Francis Ponge.

I knew nothing of how Francis Ponge's poetry had been presented to Anglo-Saxon readers until I was unexpectedly given Lee Fahnestock's translations of his The Nature of Things and Vegetation. My immediate reaction was: Lee Fahnestock must certainly be "Ponge's voice in English". Several rereadings, and a comparison with the French originals, confirmed this opinion.

Ponge was the first modern poet to be moved to imagine the inner nature of objects - "things". Things animal - vegetable - mineral. Snails - moss - pebbles. Ponge's imagination delves into the very being of the objects, he sees how even the most apparently insignificant of them is an integral part of the world we know, he shows us how the nature of inanimate things is intricately linked to all things animate, to all of us human beings. He made it his lifelong task to use his fastidious felling for words and language to make strange and beautiful poetry out of his vision.

To represent this unusual view in another language, it is evident that the translator must have a deep empathy with the original visionary, and it is clear that this empathy was what urged Lee Fahnestock to make these poems wider known. Ponge's poetic intentions may seem very serious - and they are - but he expresses seriousness in a joyous, often insouciant style, full of humor, lighthearted word play, puns, alliteration, allusions, imaginative contrasts. And I feel that this unique combination has be reproduced with love and understanding by Lee Fahnestock. She gives us Ponge's tones, rhythms, humor. She has maneuvered his word play with respect and unostentatious discretion; she knows how to read between the lines. Here, to my mind, is indeed Ponge in English.

About the Author
Francis Ponge 1899-1988 born in Montpellier lived in Nimes and Avignon. "By 1925 Ponge despairing of an ability to write anything at all took refuge in a contemplation of things. Only in 1942 his work started to receive acclaim in France.

Excerpted from The Nature of Things : Translation of : Le Parti Pris Des Choses by Francis Ponge. Copyright © 1995. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Plant life at night. With the inaction of chlorophyll, the exhalation of carbon dioxide, like a long-drawn sigh of satisfaction, as when the lowest string of stringed instruments, as slackened as may be, vibrates at the limits of music, of pure sound, of silence.

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