The Word as Archipelago

Timeless and meditative, this bilingual volume is a collection of the poetry of Rene Char, a 20th-century French poet known for his lyrical and impassioned pieces. The original French versions of the poems are accompanied by English translations on facing pages, allowing the reader to absorb both the meaning of the poetry and its beauty in the original French. Influenced by Char's experience as a commander in the French Resistance, these poems explore various paths of life, from that of an ardent lover and a mystic to a cosmic pastoralist responsive to the presences of the natural world, and contain a spirit of defiant freedom.