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Swiss Literature Prize 2012

These short poems are striking, first for their airy lightness, second for the precision of the artist’s strokes, and lastly for their musicality. Grasshoppers and dragonflies, fish, crabs and octopuses surprised in the midst of their undersea ballets; neighbours and passers-by; followed by the stubborn dead: here they all are, discreet and ephemeral, lightly drawn with minute scientific poetry and with a surprised, sometimes comical severity by a poet in search of those slivers of light that can sometimes make your day.

(Jury selection of the Swiss Literature Prize, transl. by Andrea Mason Willfratt)

[ Favourite quote ] «I saw great whales with my father;
That was when they still travelled
From town to town, stuffed of course
And protected from stares worth less than 50
Centimes, but dignified in their powerlessness
In touring fairground trailers
With model seamen
On the roads of the continent»

[ book info ] Wandelère, Frédéric: La Compagnie capricieuse. (original language: Français) The Company of Capricious Characters. La Dogana, Genève, 2012 . ISBN: 978-2-940055-71-5.