Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Bilingual Edition. Translated from the French, edited and introduced by John Taylor. Philippe Jaccottet (b. 1925) is one of Europe's most distinguished poets. His precise observations locate reality and discover transcendence in the subtle particulars and correspondences of nature. This first collection of poems and prose poems in English draws from the most recent work.

"Hunter, do not aim: this bird is not wild game. / Look, do not aim: gather only the flash of feathers among the reeds and willows. / Uniting sun and sleep in its feathers."—from the poem "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"

"Always, if he were writing in the air. As if he were tracing circles in the air while looking down from above, with a hawk's or a buzzard's eye. While keeping himself from embracing too vast a territory, while focusing the beam on the response of the catch and the heart of the question. Walking through the grass, the undergrowth, the streets of a stone village in a countryside that he has chosen. Moving forward by means of concise, highly sharpened sentences that are precisely and miraculously aimed. Mastering word and image. Especially mastering their propensity to drift away, to brim over, to avoid the scales that weigh them, that measure their accuracy. Circles traced and incorporated, like a path burning itself up and evaporating as it plunges ever deeper into the live, lively, open sensations of reality at hand and its enlightened plentitude."—Jacques Dupin

Author City: Grignan FRA

Born in Switzerland and a longtime resident of France, Philippe Jaccottet (b. 1925) has long been considered one of Europes premiere poets. The present selection draws from his four most recent volumes of poems and prose poems: Cahier de verdure (Notebook of Greenery, 1990), Après beaucoup d'années (After Many Years, 1994), Et, néanmoins (And, Nonetheless, 2001) and Ce peu de bruits (These Slight Noises, 2008). He has translated numerous German, Italian and Spanish poets into French. He is also the author of several volumes of literary criticism, and has written Le bol du pèlerin (The Pilgrim's Bowl, 2001), a study of the art of Giorgio Morandi. His collected writings are soon to be published as a volume in Gallimard's "Pléiade" series, a rare honor for a living author. He has been awarded several European literary prizes, including the Petrarch Prize and the Schiller Prize, Switzerland's highest literary distinction.

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