Synopses & Reviews
andldquo;Michaux is the poet laureate of our insomnia.andrdquo;andmdash;Anatole Broyard, The New York Times Book Review
andldquo;Michaux travels via his languages: lines, words, colors, silences, rhythms. And he does not hesitate to break the back of a wordandhellip;. In order to arrive: where? At that nowhere that is here, there, and everywhere.andrdquo;andmdash;Octavio Paz
A pairing of two of Henri Michauxandrsquo;s most contemplative textsandmdash;Stroke by Stroke (Par des traits, 1984) and Grasp (Saisir, 1979)andmdash;written toward the end of his life. The authorandrsquo;s ink drawings accompany his poetic exploration of animals, insects, language, and human nature. Explosive, measured accounts of men and beasts.
Synopsis
An exploration of the terrain between word and image, the sacred and the earthly, thought and passion.
Synopsis
Stroke by Stroke is a pairing of two of Henri Michauxs most suggestive texts, Stroke by Stroke (Par des traits, 1984) and Grasp (Saisir, 1979), written towards the end of his life. Michauxs ideogrammic ink drawings accompany his poetic explorations of animals, humans, and the origins of language. This series of verbal and pictorial gestures is at once explosive and contemplative. Michaux emerges at his most Zen.
About the Author
Henri Michaux (1899-1994) was born in Namur, Belgium. His travels throughout the Americas, Asia, and Africa inspired his first two books, Ecuador and A Barbarian in Asia. In 1948, after the death of his wife, he devoted himself increasingly to his distinctive calligraphic ink drawings. Averse to publicity of any sort, in 1965 he refused the French Grand Prix National des Lettres. Michauxs other works in English translation include Emergences-Resurgences (Skira, 2001), Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology (California, 1997), Tent Posts (Sun and Moon, 1997), and A Barbarian in Asia (New Directions, 1986).
Richard Sieburths translations include Georg Bu?chners Lenz, Friedrich Holderlins Hymns and Fragments, Walter Benjamins Moscow Diary, Gérard de Nervals Selected Writings, Henri Michauxs Emergences/Resurgences, Michel Leiris Nights as Day, Days as Night, and Gershom Scholems The Fullness of Time. His English edition of the Nerval won the 2000 PEN/ Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize. His recent translation of Maurice Sceves Délie was a finalist for the PENTranslation Prize and the Weidenfeld Prize.