Lot n° 101
Estimation :
10000 - 12000
EUR
PONGE Francis (1899-1988). - Lot 101
PONGE Francis (1899-1988).
2 autograph MANUSCRITS, La Mounine ou Note après coup sur un ciel de Provence, 1941; 2 notebooks in-4 bound of 45 and 20 pages; plus 3 L.A.S. "Francis Ponge", 1978-1979, to Lionel Salem (5 pages various sizes, 2 envelopes); all in blue cloth slipcase, title on spine.
Precious reunion of the first draft and finalization notebooks of this very beautiful poetic text, which allows us to enter the poet's creative workshop.
La Mounine was collected in La Rage de l'expression (Lausanne, Mermod, 1952); it closes the collection.
In the "Note of July 11, 1979" addressed to Lionel Salem, Francis Ponge traced the genesis of this text. During a trip to Aix-en-Provence to visit his aunt, he experienced an "emotional shock" when he suddenly saw the sky of Provence darken in broad daylight. The Mounine is entirely devoted to trying to transcribe and analyze this phenomenon and the sensations it provoked in him. Alternating between prose, verse, lyrical passages and reflections, Francis Ponge, from May to August 1941, wrote down in this notebook - which is a sort of poetic diary - the texts that this experience had provoked. Around several powerful images - violet petals, the octopus and its ink, ashes - to which he returns again and again in infinite and magnificent variations, he will not articulate a poem, but will offer the reader the very workshop of poetic creation.
Indeed, La Mounine exposes not the final result, rid of its dross and trial and error, but the process of elaboration. We thus see the same poem repeated many times, each time with insensitive variations, in prose or verse.
A first draft notebook, titled on the cover in black ink: "Notes after the fact on a landscape of Provence", and added below, in blue pencil: "or La Mounine". Notebook, size 22 x 17.5 cm, with a grey-blue cover bearing the title; the title of the collection La Rage de l'expression was added later, in black ink, at the top, and the name of the publisher Mermod at the bottom. On the back cover, an autograph note: "This notebook constitutes the original manuscript for this text, which was inscribed there as it was conceived. F. P." The notebook has 30 sheets of lined paper, paginated from 1 to 38, with an autograph letter glued on the p.[39], plus 3 loose sheets from another notebook (4 autograph pages and one with typing glued on) and a draft autograph letter glued on the 3rd p.
It is written in black or blue ink (and a small passage in pencil), first on the front of the leaves only, up to page 22 (the versos are not paginated), the rest on both sides. There are 120 passages or words crossed out, corrected or added, and numerous variants with the final text
At the head of page 1, Ponge has noted: "Notebook opened in Roanne on May 3, 1941"; follows the title: Notes après coup d'un voyage à Marseille et à Aix les 27 et 28 Avril 1941, and the beginning of the text: "Il n'a fait jour résolument qu'aux Martigues"... (p. 1-2); Night of May 10 to 11: "Decidedly the most important thing about this trip was this fleeting vision of the countryside at the place called "Les Trois Pigeons" or "la Mounine" during the bus ride from Marseille to Aix"... (p. 2-6); May 11 to 12: "On the countryside in Provence"... (p. 7-9); 12 to 13 May: "I could not conquer this landscape"... (pp. 10-15); June 10 (in pencil): "I wondered tonight"... (p. 15); 10 to 30 June 41: "Should this study be very long again"... (p. 16-17); July 1 to 12, 41: "At what time - very early in the morning - was the great gong struck"... (p. 18); Notes afterwards on a sky of Provence: "Which octopus receding in the sky of Provence caused this tragic inking of the situation? (p. 19-21); 12/7/41 Notes after the fact on a sky of Provence: "Is the most fluid of the style inks really the blue-black? (p. 22); 13/7/41
La Mounine: "At the place called La Mounine between Marseille and Aix on an April morning"... (p. 23, pasted text); 14/7/41 La Mounine : "At the place called La Mounine near Aix en Provence one morning"... (p. 24, 4 pieces pasted); 19/7/41 Note (motion) of order about the Sky of Provence : " It is a question of describing well this sky such as it appeared to me and impressed me so deeply "... (p. 25-26); 19/7/41: "When Audisio writes to me"... (p. 27-29); 19 to 25 July La Mounine: "At a place called La Mounine near Aix en Provence"... (p. 29-30, with unpublished comments); 25 July 41. 1:30 a.m.: "(A new step)"... (p. 30-32); 25 July to 5 August La Mounine: "At the place called La Mounine near Aix en Provence"... (p. 32, 4 stanzas, one of which is crossed out, with corrections); La Mounine : " a) Strophe I "... (p. 33-34); La
Mounine : " Au lieu dit la Mounine auprès d'Aix en Provence "... (p. 35-36, prose version of the poem,
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