Carnac (Bloodaxe Contemporary French Poets)

Eugene Guillevic, who died in 1997, was one of France's most important contemporary poets. Dating from 1961, Carnac marks the beginning of Guillevic's mature life as a poet. A single poem divided into several parts, it evokes the rocky, sea-bound, unfinished landscape of Brittany with its sacred objects and its great silent sense of waiting. The texts are brief but have a grave, meditative serenity, as the poet seeks to effect balance and help us ""to make friends with nature,"" as well as to live in a universe which is chaotic and often frightening. In this poetry of description-where entire landscapes are built up from short, intense texts-language is reduced to its essentials, as words are placed on the page ""like a dam against time."" ""the book is a terrific existentialist document of its time, and still has much to tell us.""-Publishers Weekly ""Flinty and sparse and full of tensile strength, Guillevic's French is well matched by Montague's strong and sensuous English.""-Booklist ""A fine translation of a beguilingly simple work.""-Kirkus