[ book tip by Literatur Schweiz ] There is nothing dramatic about the life and work of Gustave Roud (1897-1978): a major figure in introspective poetry revered by his contemporaries, he lived in a certain degree of poverty on the family farm in Carrouge in the Haut-Jorat region of canton Vaud. Profoundly influenced by the German poets he translated (Novalis, Trakl), Roud set down his love for hiking, the seasons and fields in a dense, musical, Schubertian poetic prose.
The blue flower from «Heinrich von Ofterdingen» is a recurring visitor to Roud’s «Requiem». In this text which matured over many years, the poëte (Roud uses the old-fashioned French word) sets off on a quest to regain a mystical fusion with nature and the figure of a dearly-departed mother using simple images from the natural world and a dialogue with the birds: «De deuil en deuil, il a fallu toute une vie, toute ma vie, pour recevoir enfin ce don immérité : le secret qui va nous joindre» (From grief to grief, it has taken a lifetime, my whole life, to receive at last this undeserved gift: the secret that will bring us together).

(Pierre Lepori, transl by Andrea Mason)

[ Favourite quote ] « Entre les roses noircies et ces traînées de bave orange hier encore capucines, un aster tend ses rameaux de fleurs fripées, tremble silencieusement, supplie ! Détresse pour détresse, il n’est pas d’abîme entre celle des plantes et celle des hommes. L’absolu d’une solitude les rapproche jusqu’à l’échange : j’ai vécu cette mutuelle pitié. »

[ book info ] Roud, Gustave: Requiem. (original language: Französisch) Payot, Lausanne, 1967 . ISBN: 2-85047-030-9.