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Occitan poetry 980-2008 by Joan-Frederic Brun
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Jean-Marie Petit was born in 1941 in a family of winemakers at Quarante, near Béziers, in the heart of the vineyards of Languedoc. Actually his parents were rather atypical winegrowers, as he himself points out, since his father was a pilot of planes in the Aéropostale (Air mail) before he returned to the vines, and used to grow flowers in the middle of his vineyard. This childhood in a radical socialist anticlerical family did not prepare at all Jean-Marie to the one of the major events of his life: the discovery of Christian faith. As a scholar, he became a University professor in the Faculty of Letters of Montpellier, where he studied and teached spoken Occitan under all its various forms: dialectology (he took part in the Linguistic Atlas du Languedoc), ethnography, lexicography. His research on popular occitan poetry leaded him to publish in 1971 a "Romancero occitan", ie, a collection of 47 popular texts of songs telling mysterious and fascinating stories, such as the Spanish Romancero. He admits to have been fascinated by these short forms of popular poetry as well as proverbs and tales, which surely had a strong influence on his own poetry. First influenced by Boudou and Yves Rouquette, he gradually developped an original style, condensing the emotions of his life into short and limpid texts written in a simple and genuine occitan language full of life and taste : Respondi de... (1965), Poèmas per carrièras (1970), Ni per vendre ni per crompar (1971), Lo Pan, poma e lo cotèl (1972), Non aver èsser o (1975). Occitan singers (Patric, Daumas, Breish of Le Mans, Martí, Josina Vincenzutto) have drawn a lot in his poems during the seventies. "Bestiari, aubres e vinhas" (1978) closed this period of his literary production. This book was very appreciated by Max Rouquette who later planned to publish several Bestiaris. After this latter collection, Jean-Marie stopped publishing poems for almost 20 years, due to a personal drama in his life. However, young poets, and especially Aurelia Lassaque, knowing he still wrote poems while remaining alone and forgotten by Occitan readers, convinced him to return to publishing new texts. Since 2005, a new series of troubling and fascinating "bursts of life" appeared: Nòstra Dòna dels Espotits (2005), Petaçon(2006), Patarinas (2007), D'aquesta man del jorn (2008). These recent collections reach a kind of perfection in the limpidity and emotional strength of texts that become shorter and shorter, making him again one of the most popular Occitan poets at thistime. |
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(Bestiari |
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Illusion del sorelh
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Illusion of sun
D'aquesta man del jorn (From this side of the day, 2008).
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A l'aritmetica del temps opausava la geometria de sas ancas. Se riscava nusa dins la glòria del vèspre. Balava ambe las ròsas sens espinhas tota doçor confonduda. Demòra encara dins mos dets dolents la flaira de las flors e la del velors prim sus mos pòts endormits. |
She confronted the geometry of her hips to the arithmetics of time. She ventured to go naked in the glory of the evening. She danced with thornless roses, mixing all into sweetness. And the fragrance of the flowers still remains on my painful fingers, as that of the fine velvet over my sleepy lips. D'aquesta man del jorn (From this side of the day, 2008). |
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| Parpèla de barbarós Dins l'ivèrn enromegat Espèra de nèu e de feuse. |
robin's eyelid
D'aquesta man del jorn (From this side of the day, 2008).
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| Anava bombet
dubèrt Al rendetz-vos de la tronada Una luseta sus lo còr. |
She went with her corsage open to the appointment of the thunderstorm with a firefly over her heart
D'aquesta man del jorn (From this side of the day, 2008). |
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