Poésie

POEsIE 45 modern civilization, however, have begun to seem pompous, hollow even when valid. Seymour Levitan's translations of Rachel Korn's poems from Yiddish in Paper Roses (Aya, 113, $9.00 paper) appear dated in a few places but also contain some of this year's most moving poems. Born in Poland, Korn began writing about village life in the late 19205. Some of her finest poetry grows out of the suffering she endured under the Nazi invasion and the homelessness she experienced after a forced retreat to Russia. In 'Child, Say Your Confession,' she records how she was led 'to the border I that we cross only once' and then returned: 'No one knew that I'd been gone. l Or that I'd returned.' Korn's poetry depicts moments of such total isolation that only the existence of the poem as testimony speaks of her continuing faithfulness. Rachel Korn died in Montreal in 1982. Barry Callaghan's parallel-text translation of the Yugoslav poet Miodrag Pavlovic, A Voice Locked in Stone (Exile, 107, $10.95 paper), is also quite remarkable, especially for PavloviC's dazzling use of a quasimedieval world structure to present modern man in a post-apocalyptic landscape. As should be evident, 1985 was an exceptionally fruitful year for poetry, and it has not been possible to deal in detail with all the fine books which have appeared. Harry Thurston's Clouds Flying before the Eye (Fiddlehead, 76, $7.95 paper) and Lesley Choyce'S The End of lee (Fiddlehead, 67, $7.95 paper) are only two of many which cry out for inclusion. Among the new poets, both PatJasper in Recycling (Fiddlehead, 92, $7.95 paper) and Judith Krause in What We Bring Home (Coteau, 67, $15.00, $7.00 paper) are a pleasure to read for their accounts of the remembering individual within an ongOing domestic history. Given the initial emphasis on the traditionally 'poetic' verse, it is fitting to end by mentioning that The Collected Poems of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts (Wombat, 672, $49.50), with an editorial apparatus, has appeared. It is satisfying finally to have a scholarly collected edition of the poet who is often cited as the founder of the English-Canadian tradition. Poesie ROBERT YERGEAU Deces de Michel Beaulieu, poNe, editeur, traducteur, une des figures importantes de la poesie quebecoise; mort d'un poete dont l'ceuvre fut toujours It la hauteur de ses tres hautes exigences esthetiques, Gilles des Marchais; colloque·sur la situation actuelle de la poesie quebecoise, au cours duquel Andre Roy, poete de la generation des Herbes rouges et auteur d'une douzaine de recueils, a fait part.de son desarroi face It l'etat present de la poesie; poursuite de la problematique sur la poesie sollicitee par I'effraction narrative et Ie metissage des genres; et publication de quelque quatre-vingt recueils en douze mois: voila mon tableau synoptique de l'annee poetique 1985. 'La poesie de Michel Beaulieu distille une musique qui n'a pas sa pareille dans les lettres quebecoises: ecrivais-je I'an dernier dans rna chronique. Desormais nous ecouterons cette musique de maniere differente , puisque l'auteur de Kalt!idoscope ou les Aleas du corps grave (Ie Noroit, 1984) estdecede en juillet 1985. Plusieurs temoignages sont venus rappeler la qualite d'une "'uvre qui, echelonnee sur vingt ans (Ie premier recueil de Beaulieu, Pour chanter dans les chaines, parut en 1964), n'eut souci que de sa propre unite. C'est dire qU'au-dela du nombre de recueils publies, des prix litteraires qu'il remporta, dont celui, atitre posthume, du premier Grand Prix de poesie Gatien-Lapointe, l'auteur du Cercle de justice (l'Hexagone, 1977) tint Ie pari d'une ",uvre qui ne ceda presque jamais aux 'valeurs' les plus aIeatoires de la modernite poetique. Sa poesie loge ades annees-Iumiere des flashes et des cris. D'ailleurs, il faudrait en finir avec la croyance que seuls les flashes et les cris puissent reveler, sans Ie denaturer, 'I'esprit moderne.' Certes, Beaulieu n'evita pas toujours un certain prosajsme, mais dans ses meilleurs moments, il sut privilegier une forme narrative heurtee qui rendait compte, tantot avec...