#RogerShattuck: Life cannot be dispensed with and cannot be taught; it must be lived. One has to find out for oneself, and what one comes to is a "point of view" on one's own experience. Here lies true wisdom. #Proust #Proustsky

Yet again rereading #RogerShattuck, leading me back to this favourite passage. The Narrator has figured out that Miss Sacripant is Odette and asks Elstir is he is Monsieur Biche. Elstir gives an unapologetic, big-hearted, instructive response, tr. @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social. #Proust #Proustsky

Compare that with Lydia Davis, who is happy to render "infrangible" as "infrangible" (Swann's Way). 😂 🧵(2/2) #Proust #Proustsky #translation

“Dread” works better as a #translation for "effroi"; "alarm" seems a bit much. Score one more for Peter Bush, who seems to have a knack for word choices that feel right—contextually, if not literally. 🧵(1/2) #Proust #Proustsky

D'une verrerie éphémère Sans fleurir la veillée amère Le col ignoré s'interrompt. Je crois bien que deux bouches n'ont Bu, ni son amant ni ma mère, Jamais à la même Chimère, Moi, sylphe de ce froid plafond ! Le pur vase d'aucun breuvage Que l'inexhaustible veuvage Agonise mais ne consent, Naïf baiser des plus funèbres ! A rien expirer annonçant Une rose dans les ténèbres.

The third poem, Surgi de la croupe et du bond, was dedicated to Erik Satie. See alt-text for text. 🧵(5/5) #Mallarme #Ravel #Proust #Proustsky

Princesse ! à jalouser le destin d’une Hébé Qui poind sur cette tasse au baiser de vos lèvres, J’use mes feux mais n’ai rang discret que d’abbé Et ne figurerai même nu sur le Sèvres. Comme je ne suis pas ton bichon embarbé, Ni la pastille, ni du rouge, ni jeux mièvres Et que sur moi je sais ton regard clos tombé, Blonde dont les coiffeurs divins sont des orfèvres ! Nommez-nous … toi de qui tant de ris framboisés Se joignent en troupeau d’agneaux apprivoisés Chez tous broutant les vœux et bêlant aux délires, Nommez-nous … pour qu’Amour ailé d’un éventail M’y peigne flûte aux doigts endormant ce bercail, Princesse, nommez-nous berger de vos sourires.

The second poem, Placet futile, was dedicated to Florent Schmitt. See alt-text for text. 🧵(4/5) #Mallarme #Ravel #Proust #Proustsky

Mon âme vers ton front où rêve, ô calme soeur, Un automne jonché de taches de rousseur, Et vers le ciel errant de ton oeil angélique Monte, comme dans un jardin mélancolique, Fidèle, un blanc jet d’eau soupire vers l’Azur ! – Vers l’Azur attendri d’Octobre pâle et pur Qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur infinie Et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie Des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid sillon, Se traîner le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.

The first poem, Soupir, was dedicated to Igor Stravinsky. See alt-text for poem text. 🧵(3/5) #Mallarme #Ravel #Proust #Proustsky

Trois poèmes de #Mallarmé by Maurice #Ravel. See alt-texts for poem texts. 🧵(2/5) #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, Stéphane #Mallarmé. Grand-mère found dread and weariness (Bush), alarm and exhaustion (CKSM, Treharne), "effroi" and "fatigue" (Proust) inseparable from his late poems. Heads-up: one of these comes from the year before his death. 😉 Music by Maurice #Ravel. 🧵(1/5) #Proust #Proustsky

I'm no translator but this I believe: if the original does not contain a grammatical error and your #translation does, you're wrong. #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, D.J. Enright. Thanks for giving us an edition of Proust that honours both him and Scott Moncrieff, and that in some nifty, unobtrusive ways (fodder for another day) actually betters Tadié. #Proust #Proustsky

Had a little exchange with @poemakontsa.bsky.social about why I abhor Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life. #Proust #Proustsky

If I say (if I declare) that he wrote one of the worst Proust-adjacent books I've ever read, will he block me? Please please please, I've never been blocked by anyone half-famous! #Proust #Proustsky

Prove this place is good for culture and post a good book cover. #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, #Mozart! See above for a passage from The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush in which the Duc de Guermantes heaps praise on Mozart—and on Auber as well, but let's ignore that. 😂 Here is a performance of "Dove sono" by the Queen of Legato, Gundula Janowitz. #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, #Mozart! The Duc de Guermantes loves him. So he also loves Auber, but that he loves Mozart is what's important. The passage below is from The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush. Unroll thread for a performance of "Dove sono" by the magnificent Gundula Janowitz. #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, #Mozart! See above for mention of a mystery concerto in In the Shadow of Girls in Blossom, tr. @avecsesdoigts.bsky.social. Here is a performance of K 488 with Murray Perahia. #Proust #Proustsky

Happy birthday, #Mozart! See above for mention of his Clarinet Quintet, K 581 in The Swann Way, tr. Brian Nelson. Here's a performance with Antony Pay. #Proust #Proustsky

Almost forgot! Happy birthday, #Mozart! The passage below is from The Swann Way, tr. Brian Nelson. Unroll thread for a performance of the Clarinet Quintet, K 581 with Antony Pay. #Proust #Proustsky

I got tired of lugging that single-volume brick around. So look what I got! So handy, only 7 x 4.25". And such pretty covers too. (The brick, shown for reference, measures 8.125 x 5.5".) Direct from #Gallimard. #Proust #Proustsky

Moncrieff/Kilmartin/Enright
"...my monotonously yearning imagination."
Treharne
"...my monotonously pining imagination."
Bush
"...my monotonously nostalgic imagination."

#Proust
#Proustsky

Happy birthday, Henri #FantinLatour. Still lifes of flowers and fruit incoming. #Proust #Proustsky (The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush, Oxford World’s Classics, 2025).

Translation credits: "J'Accuse," tr. Jean-Max Guieu, Shelley Temchin, 2001. The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush, 2025. #Proust #Proustsky #EmileZola #DreyfusAffair

On this day in 1898, #EmileZola published "J'Accuse!…," his blistering criticism of the trial and imprisonment of French Army officer Alfred Dreyfus. In #Proust, the #DreyfusAffair is used as a marker for the shifting of the social kaleidoscope #Proustsky

We read #Proust because of what he has to say about love. Happy, happy birthday, #EdmundWhite. (Penguin Lives: Marcel Proust, Viking Penguin, 1999.) #Proustsky #booksky #gaylit

Mark Treharne splits this glorious sentence from The Guermantes Way into two. Peter Bush does not. Yay, Peter Bush! #Proust #Proustsky

“A Guide to Proust” is my go-to for looking up people and places (fictional and real) and themes in #Proust. I hope Adam Watt and Brian Nelson do something similar when the Oxford edition is complete. 🤞🏽 @academic.oup.com would you kindly pass the word on? Also, maybe a hardcover set? 😉🙏🏽😅 #Proustsky

Happy birthday, Terence Kilmartin. His “A Guide to Proust” is no longer in print as a standalone but is still available (revised by wife Joanna, herself a translator) as an appendix to the Modern Library edition. #Proust #Proustsky

Is this the first mention of the grandmother’s devotion to the Narrator? Imagine schlepping to a bookshop on a boiling-hot day and coming home feeling unwell just so he wouldn’t have “something that was not well written” for his saint’s day. #proust #proustsky (The Swann Way, tr. Brian Nelson)

Silkworms, paintboxes, and well-written books. There are also marrons glacés and rubies elsewhere. Happy New Year! #proust #proustsky (The Swann Way, tr. Brian Nelson)