Publications in other Languages

334 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY series of researc;hes begun by the eminent geographer twenty-four years ago. What M. Gerard Morisset sees in the Quebec landscape is a church with its treasures. Les Eglises et Ie trCsor de Lotbiniere (Quebec, Collection Champlain, 1953, 72, xxxii pp., $2.00) is the latest of his slim illustrated monographs, the purpose of which is to inspire love and respect for the work of man's hands. M. Morisset is not merely an historian of art, a custodian of priceless art treasures; there is in him something of the imaginative artist. He senses the drama of a church, its heroic will to live; he knows the romance of dim, religious light. Go into Lotbiniere when the sun is setting in the westj at that moment it diffuses its amber light in the depths of the sanctuary and on the complementary furnishings of the nave, the pulpit, and the churchwardens' pew. Examine all this decoration, the result of three different campaigns . It is not the most complete work of the Canadian school, nor the richest, nor has it the most sumptuous statues and carvings; yet it impresses you by the noble arrangement of its reredos, the majesty of its proportions, the profound unity of its styles, the perlection of its statuary art, of its ornamental sculpture. M. Jean Sarrazin's radio talks are delightful. A "human geographer " interested in man's presence in the world, he introduces us to the peoples of the world whose mode of life he defines in chapter headings: "A race which is dying under a radiant sun," "A rice civilization swarming with yellow hordes," "Merchants of rugs, dreams, and oil," "Ruined castles, mystic pride, gilded poverty." These talks are to be found in a beautifully printed and illustrated volume entitled Visages de I'homme (Montreal, Beauchemin, 368 pp., $3.50) . Another attractive book is Mile Germaine Bernier's Impressions de France et d'ltalie (Montreal, Beauchemin, 187 pp., $2.00), an account of a Canadian journalist's impressions abroad, tastefully de. signed to induce North Americans to take to the air and visit Europe. With these two examples of French Canada looking abroad, we may conclude our survey for 1954. V. PUBLICATIONS IN OTHER LANGUAGBS WATSON KIRKCONNELL Poetry in 1954 has been fairly equally divided among the Icelanders , the Ukrainians, and the Jews of Canada. In Icelandic, Pail S. Palsson of Gimli has published A Search, his .third collection of lyric poems, earlier volumes having appeared in 1936 and 1947. The last twenty-six pages are given over to a lyric sequence entitled "Twilight-Song, an Episode from the Church His.. tory of the North American Icelanders." Of the remaining fifty poems, LETTERS IN CANADA: 1954 335 fully half are addressed to friends on various occasions--a wedding anniversary, a sixtieth birthday or some similar notable day. Love of nature is found in his "Icelandic daisy in America," "Memorial to a raven," and "Landfall." A satirical note is sounded in his verses: "I saw Mammon glow in phosphorescence. . . ." The dates of many individual poems are given, ranging all the way from 1901 to 1954. A fellow-Icelander who has turned to English as a medium of expression is Paul Bjamason, of Vancouver, whose Odes and Echoes consists of 20 pages of original verse (the "Odes") and 150 pages of verse translations (the "Echoes") from Icelandic poets in Canada and in Iceland. The original poetry is given over to railing against war and capitalism, without marked technical mastery. In his translation , on the other hand, Paul Bjamason has given us a superb introduction to modem Icelandic poetry, one of the best collections of it ever to be published in English dress. He is particularly to be commended on the range of his renderings from Stephan G. Stephansson and Einar Benediktsson. This is an important volume. Wbile the Icelanders' poetry is chiefly social, political, and personal in its orientation, that of the Ukrainians is frankly religious. From the community of the Evangelical Baptists has come Rays, a large anthology of religious verse, some 232 poems on every phase of Christian experience. Among the scores of poets included are several whose volumes...