"La Clart NotreDame" and "The Last Book of the Madrigals"

The last works of the last great classic European poet now available in English. In his 96th and final year, and with the help of the poet Jos-Flore Tappy, celebrated Swiss poet Philippe Jaccottet finished two manuscripts-in-progress, one in prose and one in poetry, both of which are presented in this volume in John Taylors sensitive translation. The first work, La Clart Notre-Dame, takes off from the pure, weightless, fragile, yet crystal-clear tinkling of a monastery bell heard during a walk with friends. With this thought-provoking sound as a leitmotiv, Jaccottet looks back on a life of writing, reading, and scrutinizing humankinds existential and spiritual aspirations. He sets these concerns against his equally lifelong preoccupation with the rise of evil in todays world, notably in Syria. Composed in a baroque style, the verse poems collected in The Last Book of Madrigals explore love. Jaccottet returns in spirit to Italy, the country which for him symbolizes happiness and sensuality. As he evokes amorous attraction, he conjures up Monteverdis madrigals, one of Dantes little-known rhymes, and Giuseppe Ungarettis last poem. Reinventing and commenting on these works, Jaccottet meditates on old age, approaching death, despair, and the persistence of love. Together, both works grapple with devastating darkness, but as Tappy observes in her afterword, however, Jaccottets greatest force was his perpetually renewed desire, during the most terrifying night, to head for the light.