Bibliography
The translations in this Anthology have been taken from the following collections of poems:—
Bonmariage (Sylvain), Poèmes, Société française d’Editions modernes, Paris, 1909.
Braun (Thomas), Le Livre des Bénédictions, Brussels, 1900.
Collin (Isi-), La Vallée Heureuse, Liège and Paris, 1903.
Dominique (Jean), L’Anémone des Mers, Mercure de France, 1906.
Elskamp (Max), La Louange de la Vie, Mercure de France, 1898.
——Enluminures, Lacomblez, Brussels, 1898.
Fontainas (André), Crépuscules, Mercure de France, 1897.
——La Nef Désemparée, Mercure de France, 1908.
Gérardy (Paul), Roseaux, Mercure de France, 1898.
Gilkin (Iwan), La Nuit (reprint of La Damnation de l’Artiste, 1890, and Ténèbres,1892), Fischbacher, Paris, 1897. (New edition Mercure de France, 1910.)
Gille (Valère), La Cithare, Fischbacher, Paris, 1897.
Giraud (Albert), Hors du Siècle, Vanier, Paris, 1888.
——La Guirlande des Dieux, Lamertin, Brussels, 1910.
Kinon (Victor), L’Âme des Saisons, Larcier, Brussels, 1909.
Lerberghe (Charles van), Entrevisions, Mercure de France, 1898
——La Chanson d’Eve, Mercure de France, 1904.
Le Roy (Grégoire), La Chanson du Pauvre, Mercure de France, 1907.
——La Couronne des Soirs, Lamertin, Brussels, 1911.
Maeterlinck (Maurice), Serres Chaudes suivies de Quinze Chansons, Lacomblez, Brussels, 1906.
Marlow (Georges), L’Âme en Exil, Deman, Brussels, 1895.
Mockel (Albert), Chantefable un peu naïve, Liège, 1891.
——Clartés, Mercure de France, 1902.
——Vers et Prose, 1910.
——La Flamme Immortelle (in preparation).
Ramaekers (Georges), Le Chant des Trois Règnes, Brussels, 1906.
Rency (Georges), Vie, Lacomblez, Brussels, 1897.
——Les Heures Harmonieuses, Brussels, 1897.
Séverin (Fernand), Poèmes, Mercure de France, 1907.
——Le Centaure, published in La Vie intellectuelle, Nov. 19th, 1909.
Verhaeren (Émile), Poèmes, Mercure de France, 1900 (reprint of Les Flamandes, 1883; Les Moines, 1886; Les Bords de la Route, 1891).
——Poèmes, nouvelle série, Mercure de France, 5th edit., 1906 (reprint of Les Soirs, 1887; Les Débâcles,1888; Les Flambeaux Noirs, 1890).
——Poèmes, iiie série, Mercure de France, 5th edit., 1907 (reprint of Les Villages illusoires, 1895; Les Apparus dans mes Chemins, 1891; Les Vignes de ma Muraille, 1899).
——Les Villes tentaculaires, précédées des Campagnes hallucinées, Mercure de France, 1904.
——Toute La Flandre, La Guirlande des Dunes, Deman, Brussels, 1907.
——Les Heures Claires, suivie des Heures d’après-midi, Mercure de France, 1909.
——Les Rythmes souverains, Mercure de France, 2nd edit., 1910.
ANTHOLOGIES.
Parnasse de la Jeune Belgique, Vanier, Paris, 1887.
Poètes belges d’expression française (par Pol de Mont), W. Hilarius, Almelo, 1899.
Anthologie des Poètes français contemporains, ed. G. Walch, 3 vols., Ch. Delagrave, Paris, 1906-07.
Poètes d’Aujourd’hui, ed. Ad. van Bever and Paul Léautaud, 2 vols., 18th edit., Mercure de France, 1908.
LITERATURE (SELECTED).
Bazalgette (Léon), Émile Verhaeren, Sansot, Paris, 1907.
Beaunier (André), La Poésie Nouvelle, Mercure de France, 1902.
Edwards (Osman), Émile Verhaeren, The Savoy, Nov. 1897.
Gilbert (Eugène), Iwan Gilkin, Vanderpoorten, Ghent, 1908.
Gilkin (Iwan), Quinze Années de Littérature, la jeune Belgique, Dec. 1895.
——Les Origines Estudiantines de la “jeune Belgique” à l’Université de Louvain, Editions de la Belgique artistique et littéraire, Brussels, 1909.
Gosse (Edmund), French Profiles, London, 1905.
——The Romance of Fairyland, with a note on a Belgian Ariosto, The Standard, 27th March 1908.
Harry (Gérard), Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Alfred Allinson, London, 1910.
Hauser (Otto), Die belgische Lyrik von 1880-1900, Groszenhain, 1902.
Horrent (Désiré), Ecrivains belges d’aujourd’hui, Lacomblez, Brussels, 1904.
Kinon (Victor), Portraits d’auteurs, Dechenne et Cie., Brussels, 1910.
Maeterlinck (Georgette Leblanc), Maeterlinck’s Methods of Life and Work, Contemporary Review, Nov. 1910.
Mockel (Albert), Émile Verhaeren, Mercure de Franco, 1895.
——Charles van Lerberghe, Mercure de France, 1904.
Ramaekers (George), Émile Verhaeren, Edition de “La Lutte,” Brussels, 1900.
Rency (Georges), Physionomies littéraires, Dechenne et Cie., Brussels, 1907.
Schlaf (Johannes), Émile Verhaeren, vol. xxxviii. of “Die Dichtung,” Berlin, 1905.
Symons (Arthur), The Dawn by Émile Verhaeren, London, 1898.
——The Symbolist Movement in Literature, London, 1908.
Thompson (Vance), French Portraits, Boston, 1900.
Verhaeren (Émile), Les Lettres françaises en Belgique, Lamertin, Brussels, 1907.
Visan (Tancrède de), Sur l’uvre d’Alfred Mockel, Vers et Prose, April-June 1909.
Zweig (Stefan), Émile Verhaeren, Mercure de France, 1910.
——Émile Verhaeren, Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1910.
Notes
Page 3.—“Red Cheshire.” The Dutch cheese so-called is “roux.” Braun suggests that the adjective should be translated “red-haired.”
Page 6.—“Those that we address with ‘Sir.’” The cheese sold under the name of “Monsieur Fromage.”
Page 13, seq.—Max Elskamp’s poetry is considered somewhat obscure, and students may find the following equations of help: la Vierge = la femme pure; Jésus = l’enfance délicieuse; un dimanche solaire = une joie éclatante; un dimanche de cur de bois = une joie égoïste; un soldat = brutalité; un juif = un marchand; un oiseau = la vie sous la forme du verbe; une fleur = la vie sous la forme de la senteur.
Page 13.—“Of Evening.” Sunday is life, the week-days are death; the poet is the Sunday, therefore, since the week is about to begin again, he must die. The third stanza means that the Truelove will never again weep for the fair days of betrothal or marriage which the old family ring she wears remind her of.
Page 18.—“Full of cripples.” By night, because then the regulations forbidding begging are more easily set at defiance.
Page 19, line 6.—An allusion to the painting by Seghers, which represents the Virgin Mary with lilies, dahlias, and even snowdrops.
Page 23.—“Here the azure cherubs blow.” An allusion to the painting by Fouquet in the Museum at Antwerp.
Page 47.—In Huysmans’ novel, À Rebours, liqueurs are compared with musical instruments: curaçao corresponds to the clarinet; kümmel to the nasal oboe; kirsch to the fierce blast of a trumpet, etc.
Page 100.—Song vii. “Et c’est l’esclavage, n’est-ce pas? auquel s’astreint tout être qui se dévoue.” Beaunier.
Page 107.—“The running water” is the image of the human soul, constantly changing, “en devenir dans le devenir.” And yet there is in it a continued, though mobile unity, a permanent rhythm. It objectifies itself in space, but only exists in time, and Mockel sees its vital sign in those aspirations which guide it towards itself, which bear it on to its fate. The unity of the mobile river, whose waves to-morrow will no longer be those they are to-day, is the continuous current that bears it, as though it aspired to the infinity of oceans.
Page 110.—The Goblet is woman, who, whether she inspires genius or sells her body, exists, for us, less by herself than by us; she is what we make her, like this goblet whose colours vary according to what one pours into it.
Page 111.—The Chandelier symbolizes the permanent drama enacted by Art, placed as it is between the frivolous world,—which tramples the rose of love under foot,—an the immortal splendour of Nature, which makes it feel its own feebleness.
Page 113.—The Angel is the legend of genius.
Page 116.—The Man with the lyre is the poet, who is less and less understood as he strikes the graver chords of his lyre.
Page 122.—The Eternal Bride is the Aspiration towards which we strive.