by
Jean-Michel Maulpoix
Translated
from the French with an Introduction by Dawn Cornelio
A Lannan Translations
Series Selection
A
Matter of Blue has gone through multiple French printings
and is noted poet, essayist, and critic Jean-Michel Maulpoix's
most publicly and critically acclaimed book. Throughout
the collection, prose poems and blank verse operate on a recognizable,
accessible level, offering a narrative voice struggling for understanding
in a postmodern, sometimes desolate world. "In A
Matter of Blue Jean-Michel Maulpoix uses the color blue to
encompass melancholy and nostalgia, but also the joy and hope
inherent in life. Even if the gods' presence can no longer
be taken for granted, blue still remains to accompany us in our
daily lives, although it may suffer from fatigue and be unsure
of its own strength." --Dawn Cornelio from the translator's
introduction.
Dark-eyed
women have a blue gaze
Blue
is the color of looking, of the inside of the soul and of thought,
of waiting, dreaming and sleep.
We
enjoy blending all the colors into one. From the wind, the
sea, the snow, the very soft pink of skin, the red of laughing
lips, insomnia's white rings around the green of the eyes, and
the flaking, faded guilding of leaves, we manufacture blue.
We
dream of a blue land, of round-colored land, new as the first
day, and curved as a woman's body.
We
become accustomed to not seeing infinity clearly, and are patient
on the edge of the invisible. We convert the discordance
of our life into music. This blue that envelopes our heart
delivers us from our lameness. In times of sorrow, we spread
it like salve on our finitude. This is why we love the sound
of the cello and summer evenings: what rocks us and puts us to
sleep. When the day comes, the illusion of love will close
our eyes.
Available editions:
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Cloth
ISBN: 1-929918-66-6
Price: $22.00
Publishing Date: July 2005
Paperback
ISBN: 1-929918-67-4
Price: $15.95
Publishing Date: July 2005
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