#Zola helped deliver this measure of justice, complete even if long-delayed, to Alfred #Dreyfus. #Proust #Proustsky
Re-upping this to celebrate the birthday of Émile #Zola. #Proust #Proustsky
"My grandmother sensed I was far away and miserable, and decided she could forgo her strict ‘principles’ about child rearing and surrender to an outpouring of tenderness she usually nipped in the bud or concealed." The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush. 🧵(2/2) #Proust #Proustsky
Happy birthday, Laurette Taylor, seen here cosplaying the Narrator's grand-mère. 😉 "…as it reached me in isolation, with no distracting facial features, I discovered how gentle her voice sounded, perhaps more than ever." The Guermantes Way, tr. Peter Bush. #Proust #Proustsky
Math-loving #Proust readers (and Proust-reading mathematicians, I guess) are grateful. ♥️ Scott Moncrieff, Kilmartin, and Enright didn't get it, and neither did Treharne and Prendergast. Of course, Davis got it but probably only because she loves cognates. 🤣 #Proustsky 🧵2/2
#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