Paul Claudel Papers (E-Journal)

Swami, Sita

Le Théàtre asiatique de Claudel

Villani, Sergio

Claudel: Poetics of Separation
Sergio Villani
York University
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost
T his paper directs attention on one of Claudel's most beauti-
fully crafted and subtly suggestive sonnets of the fin de siecle. It has no
precise date and no title. It begins with the striking first line: Separons-
nous id, vous etes arrive. My analysis sets this poem within the context of
the group of poems designated in the Pleiade edition of Claudel's poetry
as Premiers vers and Vers d'exil. These categories give a somewhat vague
temporal and spatial reference to the gestation of these poems, but add
little to our understanding of their nature and purpose. I prefer to view
these poems as part of Claudel's poetic activity that spans from the 1880s
to the First World War, a group of generally short lyrics that excludes of
course the Five Great Odes. It is in these poems that Claudel enunciates
what I call a Poetics of separation, a dialectic discourse through which he
distances himself from his symbolist influences and develops characteris-
tic stylistic traits and a personal poetic voice. These poems reveal the
emotional and philosophical tensions, the difficulties of choices that
marked the formative years of the poet. In this context, my study! of the
sonnet Celui-la seul saura sourire, argues that in this sonnet Claudel
praises the achievements of Stephane Mallarme and demonstrates that
he has masterfully assimilated his temper and form. At the same time,
Claudel expresses in bellicose terms the necessity to reject these traits, to
separate himself from Mallarme's school, in order to develop a poetic
identity of his own. This sonnet is then a watershed, a point of demarca-
tion and separation. Like Caesar, Claudel casts the dice and crosses his
Rubicon. Once the rejection of Mallarme's poetics articulated, there is
no turning back. The sonnet Separons-nous id, vous etes arrive continues
this dialectic and gives other dimensions to this process of separation and
affirmation of self-identity.
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Sergio Villani
Separons-nous ici, vous etes arrive
Voici le lieu, voici l'arbre, voici la porte.
Compagnon, nous avons marche de bonne sorte,
Coursant ainsi, depuis que le jour s'est leve.
Eh bien, c'est la le toit qui fut par vous trouve.
Dites: C'est moil criez, heurtez l'huis a main forte!
La femme et le repas vous attendent. Qu'importe
Le compagnon d'un jour? Vous etes arrive.
La vieille mere est la; l'epouse douce et sage
Est la, prenez-les dans vos bras. Le reste est vain.
L'enfant nouveau vous met les mains sur le visage.
Adieu. Riez, soyez heureux jusqu'a la fin,
Mangez de votre pain, buvez a votre verre.
Pour moi un long chemin encor me reste a faire. (OP, 17) 2
This sonnet is striking for its simplicity and clarity, two principle
tenets of Claudelian poetics. No Mallarmean ellipsis here, no tortuous
syntax, no challenging images, no elitist posturing. Rather, Claudel
relates a simple anecdote, one that a child could summarize without hes-
itation: after a long day's journey together, two companions part ways for
one has reached his destination, as he reintegrates his home and his fam-
ily. It is time to say goodbye. Could there be a simpler and clearer
expression? And yet this simplicity of language and form is deceiving for
this sonnet is laden with shades of meaning. Simplicity is not synony-
mous here with shallowness of thought. The simple tale masks tensions
that have reached a point of resolution. Like a fable or a parable, in its
simplicity, this anecdote expresses a wisdom, a lesson, both a personal
and universal truth.
The very first line of the poem stresses the notion of separation.
The adverbial id denotes spatially the point of separation which is rein-
forced stylistically by the break of the line at the hemistiche. The first
part of this line (Separons-nous id) forms one phonic unit because of
Claudel's use of elision. This unity is then broken by the silence after ici.
The binary structure of this first line is followed by the tertiary rhythm of
the second line, marked by the three repetitions of void, echoing the id
60 Paul Claudel Papers Volume II
Claudel: Poetics of Separation
of the first line and, thus, marking and stressing again the point of sepa-
ration and the point of articulation, the voicing of the separation, the
uttering of the adieu which is the subject of the poem. What follows is
the verbalization of this moment of separation. These are superficially
simple words but, in the subtext of this simple language, we can read the
tensions of an intertwined poetic and personal drama. It is a drama of dif-
ficult choices for this separation involves existential values: the choice
between two divergent lifestyles and the abandonment and rejection of
the easier one, the more comfortable one, the normal or customary one.
Hence the tensions, the internal struggle and turmoil.
The discourse is "diegetic" in nature, - another characteristic
aspect of Claudel's poetry. The speaker here has a familiar voice, friendly
in tone, soft, and yet dynamic and authoritative with its use of the apos-
trophe and sequence of imperative injunctions. With his adieu, the
speaker, the one who has not reached his destination and who has still a
"long road" to follow, to an undetermined or uncertain place, reveals to
us the nature of their conversation as he had journeyed side by side with
his companion since the break of dawn. His companion must have talked
to him about his home with its identifYing tree and familiar entrance and
about his family: first his "old" mother, then his "sweet" and "wise" wife,
always attentive to the needs of the family, and finally the tenderness of
a new-born child: L 'enfant nouveau vous met les mains sur le visage. The
speaker urges his companion to forget their brief friendship (Qu'importe
le compagnon d'un jour?) and enter his home and embrace his family
members: prenez-les dans vos bras. He sketches here scenes of an idyllic
existence. His insistence and the urgency expressed in the series of
imperatives - criez, heurtez, prenez, riez soyez, mangez, buvez - seem at
first to indicate hesitancy on the part of his companion to separate him-
self from his wandering friend. But in fact the imperatives translate a
hortatory tone that underscores the value that the speaker attaches to
that lifestyle of intimate relationships and family warmth. For him, that
lifestyle constitutes the essence of existence. "The rest is vanity," he
affirms, echoing the biblical vanitas vanitatis.
However, as much as he urges his companion to embrace that
lifestyle again, as much he seems to distance himself from it, and indeed
reject it. The three adverbial, spatial, expressions - c'est la le toit, la vieille
mere est la, l' epouse douce et sage est la - in the second and third stanzas,
form a counterpoint to the repetition of ici in the first stanza and place
the speaker irremediably outside of that world of happiness consisting of
Volume 11 Paul Claude1 Papers 61
Sergio Villani
home and family. This exclusion and the difference between himself and
his companion is underlined by the repetition of the phrase Vous etes
arrive at the end of the second stanza as well as by the repetition of the
possessive to indicate what belongs to the companion and not to him:
vos bras, votre pain, votre verre. The companion is part of a space of
belonging, of inclusion, while the speaker is an outsider, in a space with-
out personal belongings, "unattached" as it were, in a state of
"depossession". Strangely, we note that the companion makes no gesture
to invite his friend to enter his family sphere for a brief rest, to eat, drink
and share the warmth and joys of his household. There is to be no temp-
tation, no distraction. He is to pursue his long route alone.
This poem relates a kind of parable. The anecdote describes a
point of existential choices, a point of existential crossroads. Young
Claudel, it seems, recognizes and appreciates the value of friendship and
family ties. He is aware of the stability and comfort offered by the home
and the family. "The rest is vanity," he says. Indeed, could we not con-
sider the companion in this anecdote as an alter ego of Claudel, a double,
an image of the young man who has recently married and experienced
the satisfaction of love, companionship and fatherhood. And yet, to
serve his country and pursue his artistic quest, he chooses to separate
himself from this stability and comfort to engage in the long route of
exile from homeland and friendship. Claudel recognizes separation to be
a necessary sacrifice to patriotic service and literary creativity. We know
how much he bemoans being far from his country and his friends and
family. At times he touches the depths of despair: Mes yeux sont pleins de
nuit et mon coeur est plein d'eau! (OP, 18) And yet, the more he is isolated
and distant, the more he is creative and productive. The tensions of sep-
aration and distance become catalysts of his creative impulse. He thus
sacrifices all in order to respond to a beckoning call: I:inexorable appel de
la voix merveilleuse. (OP, 28)
This sonnet expresses an aspect of Claudel's poetics of separa-
tion, marks an important stage in his growth as a poet. The short, lyrical
poems which he writes between the 1880s and the First World War trace
the development of this poetic of separation. I often refer to these texts
as anti-odes for they lack the lofty tone and the breadth of the Great
Odes. Still they incorporate stylistic traits - repetition, contrast, apostro-
phe, diegetic and dialectic discourse. - that characterize the temper of
the mature and accomplished poet, in full control of his poetic skill and
voice. The fact that he writes some of these texts at the same time as he
62 Paul Claude1 Papers Volume 11
Claudel: Poetics of Separation
is working on the Great Odes, and that he oscillates between the rigours
of traditional form and a more free verse, also indicates, as we have seen
in the sonnet Separons~nousici, vous etes arrive, the indispensable neces-
sity in him for integration and separation, egoism and altruism, rigour
and freedom. These tensions nurture his creativity.
Notes
I «Casser la branche militaire: Claudel et la poetique de fin de siecle,,> Paul
Claudel Papers, Vol. I (January 2003): 15-21.
2 Paul Claudel, CEuvre poitique. Introduction Stanislas Fumet. Textes etablis et
annotes par ]acques Petit. (Paris: Gallimard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade,
1967.)
Volume II Paul Claudel Papers 63


English

Claudel: Poetics of Separations

Winspur, Steven

French

Commenter le génie d'un lieu: Connaissance de l'Est

Taylor, Larissa Juliet

Claudel, Vézelay and the Pilgrim Experience

Mukherjee, Madhuri

The Poet and his Doubles: Claudel's Orientalism

Jullien, Claudia

Claudel et les sauterelles de l'Apocalypse de Jean: de l'image au symbole ou de la forme à la force

Hellerstein, Nina

Claudel et Whitman

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Paul Claude1 News
20~ 21 et 22 octobre 200S
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Volume III Paul Claudel Papers 107
Sergio Paul Claudel News
Doctoral Thesis
Directed by Michel Autrand,
Sorbonne, ParisIV, 2003
La Bouffonnerie dans le theatre de Paul Claude1
Sever Martinot-Lagarde
Souvent considere a tort comme austere, le theatre de Claudel
regorge de plaisanteries tellement epaisses et de scenes si extravagantes
que seul le mot « bouffonnerie » convient pour les decrire. Loin de
fournir une recreation secondaire au spectateur, ces bouffonneries
constituent un element essentiel dans la vision du monde, la poetique et
la dramaturgie de Claudel. Plus une scene semble gratuite, mieux elle
dissimule le sens latent de 1'reuvre. Nous analysons donc les formes qu'a
empruntees la bouffonnerie claudelienne, son influence sur la conception
des personnages, sa signification et ses fonctions au sein du drame, en
particulier ses dimensions lyriques et mystiques.
Nous proposons dans la premiere partie une definition critique
de cette notion et nous explorons les conceptions de 1'auteur atravers ses
sources et ses reflexions sur le rire.
Parce que le theatre claudelien s'etend sur soixante-dix ans et que
le comique y a connu de multiples metamorphoses, force nous est
d'aborder le sujet de maniere diachronique. La deuxieme partie analyse la
premiere moitie du theatre claudelien OU le comique ressort al'esthetique
du grotesque. La troisieme partie se consacre aux pieces qui, de Protee a
1'ultime Prologue aProtee, temoignent d'une vision du monde bouffonne.
108 Paul Claudel Papers Volume III
Sergio Paul Claudel News
Buffoons and Buffoonery in the Theatre of Paul Claudel
Often wrongfully considered as quite austere, the theatre of Paul
Claudel is in fact filled with such dreadful jokes and such preposterous
scenes that the only word fit to describe them is slapstick. Far from merely
providing comic relief, these jokes play a key part in Claudel's vision of the
world as well as in his poetics and dramaturgy. The more absurd a scene
appears, the more it seems to hide the inner sense of the play. We will
therefore analyse the different forms Claudel's comic has assumed and
then study its influence on the conception of characters, its signification
and the various functions it fulfils within the play, and in particular its
lyric and mystic dimensions.
This paper will first try to establish a critical definition of
buffoonery before exploring Claudel's own conception of this notion
through both the analysis of his sources and his reflections on laughter
Because Claudel's work spreads over seventy years and owing to
the numerous metamorphoses comic has undergone throughout that
period, a diachronic approach has been adopted. The second part of this
paper will therefore analyse the first half of Claudel's theatre, where comic
offers the characteristic of the grotesque. The third part deals with the
plays, from Protee to the final Prologue to Protee, which follow the
aesthetic of buffoonery.
Volume III Paul Claudel Papers 109
Sergio Paul Claudel News
Books received
Paul Claudel. Knowing the East. Translated by James R. Lawler. Princeton
and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004.
Lettres de Paul Claudel it Jean Paulhan (1925-1954). Correspondance
presentee et annotee par Catherine Mayaux. Berne: Peter Lang, 2004.
110 Paul Claudel Papers VOlume III


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