Émile Nelligan
Encyclopedia
Émile Nelligan was a francophone
poet
from Quebec
, Canada
.
on December 24, 1879 at 602, rue de La Gauchetière. He was the first son of David Nelligan, who arrived in Quebec from Dublin, Ireland
at the age of 12. His mother was Émilie Amanda Hudon, from Rimouski, Quebec. He had two sisters, Eva and Gertrude.
A follower of Symbolism
, his poetry was profoundly influenced by Octave Crémazie
, Louis Fréchette, Charles Baudelaire
, Paul Verlaine
, Georges Rodenbach
, Maurice Rollinat
and Edgar Allan Poe
. A precocious talent like Arthur Rimbaud
, his first poems were published in Montreal when he was 16 years old.
In 1899, Nelligan suffered a major psychotic
breakdown from which he never recovered. He never had a chance to finish his first poetry work which was to be entitled Le Récital des Anges according to his last notes.
At the time, rumor and speculation was that he went insane because of the vast cultural and language differences between his mother and father.
In 1903, his collected poems were published to great acclaim in Canada. He may not have been aware that he was counted among French Canada's greatest poets.
On his passing in 1941, Émile Nelligan was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec. Following his death, the public became increasingly interested in Nelligan. His incomplete work spawned a kind of romantic legend. He was first translated to English in 1960 by P.F. Widdows. In 1983, Fred Cogswell
translated all his poems in The Complete Poems of Émile Nelligan.
Émile Nelligan is considered one of the greatest poets of French Canada. Several schools and libraries in Quebec are named after him and Hotel Nelligan is a four-star hotel in Old Montreal
at the corner of Rue St. Paul and Rue St. Sulpice.
Dressé comme un pardon au seuil du vieux couvent,
Échafaud solennel à geste noir, devant
Lequel je me courbais, saintement idolâtre.
Or, l'autre soir, à l'heure où le cri-cri folâtre,
Par les prés assombris, le regard bleu rêvant,
Récitant Eloa, les cheveux dans le vent,
Comme il sied à l'Éphèbe esthétique et bellâtre,
J'aperçus, adjoignant des débris de parois,
Un gigantesque amas de lourde vieille croix
Ed de plâtre écroulé parmi les primevères ;
Et je restai là, morne, avec les yeux pensifs,
Et j'entendais en moi des marteaux convulsifs
Renfoncer les clous noirs des intimes Calvaires !
Translation by Konrad Bongard
The gypsum Jesus always stalled me in my steps
Like a curse at the old convent door;
Crouching meekly, I bend to exalt an idol
Whose forgiveness I do not implore.
Not long ago, at the crickets' hour, I roamed dim
Meadows in a restful reverie
Reciting 'Eloa', with my hair worn by the wind
And no audience save for the trees.
But now, as I lie with knees bent beneath Christ's scaffold,
I see his crumbling mortar cross
With its plaster buried in the roses, and am saddened -
For if I listen close enough, I can almost hear
The sound of coal-black nails being wrung in
To his wrists, the savage piercing of Longinus' spear.
On June 7, 2005, the Fondation Émile-Nelligan and the City of Montreal inaugurated a bust to his memory in the Carré Saint-Louis. There is also a monument to his memory in Quebec City
.
The poetry of Nelligan inspired numerous music composers:
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
from Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Biography
Nelligan was born in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
on December 24, 1879 at 602, rue de La Gauchetière. He was the first son of David Nelligan, who arrived in Quebec from Dublin, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
at the age of 12. His mother was Émilie Amanda Hudon, from Rimouski, Quebec. He had two sisters, Eva and Gertrude.
A follower of Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
, his poetry was profoundly influenced by Octave Crémazie
Octave Crémazie
Octave Crémazie was a French Canadian poet. He has been called "the father of French Canadian poetry" for his patriotic verse, often rhetorical in style, celebrating such subjects as Montcalm's defence of Fort Carillon in "Le drapeau de Carillon"...
, Louis Fréchette, Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
, Georges Rodenbach
Georges Rodenbach
Georges Raymond Constantin Rodenbach was a Belgian Symbolist poet and novelist.- Biography :Georges Rodenbach was born in Tournai to a French mother and a German father from the Rhineland . He went to school in Ghent at the prestigious Sint-Barbaracollege, where he became friends with the poet...
, Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat was a French poet.-Early works:His father represented Indre in the National Assembly of 1848, and was a friend of George Sand, whose influence is very marked in young Rollinat's first volume, Dans les brandes , and to whom it was dedicated.-Brief fame:After its publication, he...
and Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. A precocious talent like Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, his first poems were published in Montreal when he was 16 years old.
In 1899, Nelligan suffered a major psychotic
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
breakdown from which he never recovered. He never had a chance to finish his first poetry work which was to be entitled Le Récital des Anges according to his last notes.
At the time, rumor and speculation was that he went insane because of the vast cultural and language differences between his mother and father.
In 1903, his collected poems were published to great acclaim in Canada. He may not have been aware that he was counted among French Canada's greatest poets.
On his passing in 1941, Émile Nelligan was interred in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges in Montreal, Quebec. Following his death, the public became increasingly interested in Nelligan. His incomplete work spawned a kind of romantic legend. He was first translated to English in 1960 by P.F. Widdows. In 1983, Fred Cogswell
Fred Cogswell
Fred Cogswell, CM was a Canadian poet.Born in East Centreville, New Brunswick he served overseas in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. A teacher at the age of sixteen, Cogswell gained a BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick and received a PhD from Edinburgh University...
translated all his poems in The Complete Poems of Émile Nelligan.
Émile Nelligan is considered one of the greatest poets of French Canada. Several schools and libraries in Quebec are named after him and Hotel Nelligan is a four-star hotel in Old Montreal
Old Montreal
Old Montreal is the oldest area in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, dating back to New France. Located in the borough of Ville-Marie, the area is bordered on the west by McGill St., on the north by Ruelle des Fortifications, on the east by Berri St. and on the south by the Saint Lawrence River...
at the corner of Rue St. Paul and Rue St. Sulpice.
Le Vaisseau d'Or
Christ en Croix
Je remarquais toujours ce grand Jésus de plâtreDressé comme un pardon au seuil du vieux couvent,
Échafaud solennel à geste noir, devant
Lequel je me courbais, saintement idolâtre.
Or, l'autre soir, à l'heure où le cri-cri folâtre,
Par les prés assombris, le regard bleu rêvant,
Récitant Eloa, les cheveux dans le vent,
Comme il sied à l'Éphèbe esthétique et bellâtre,
J'aperçus, adjoignant des débris de parois,
Un gigantesque amas de lourde vieille croix
Ed de plâtre écroulé parmi les primevères ;
Et je restai là, morne, avec les yeux pensifs,
Et j'entendais en moi des marteaux convulsifs
Renfoncer les clous noirs des intimes Calvaires !
Translation by Konrad Bongard
The gypsum Jesus always stalled me in my steps
Like a curse at the old convent door;
Crouching meekly, I bend to exalt an idol
Whose forgiveness I do not implore.
Not long ago, at the crickets' hour, I roamed dim
Meadows in a restful reverie
Reciting 'Eloa', with my hair worn by the wind
And no audience save for the trees.
But now, as I lie with knees bent beneath Christ's scaffold,
I see his crumbling mortar cross
With its plaster buried in the roses, and am saddened -
For if I listen close enough, I can almost hear
The sound of coal-black nails being wrung in
To his wrists, the savage piercing of Longinus' spear.
Tribute
Several schools and libraries of Quebec bear the name of Émile Nelligan. Since 1979, the Prix Émile-Nelligan rewards the author of a French-language poetry book written by a young poet in North America.On June 7, 2005, the Fondation Émile-Nelligan and the City of Montreal inaugurated a bust to his memory in the Carré Saint-Louis. There is also a monument to his memory in Quebec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
.
The poetry of Nelligan inspired numerous music composers:
- André GagnonAndré GagnonAndré Gagnon, OC is a Canadian musician and composer. He shifted from a classical musical style to an adult contemporary style in the mid-1970s with albums such as Neiges....
. Nelligan, Toronto: Disques SRC, 2005, 2 disks (Concert recorded at the Salle Wilfrid-PelletierSalle Wilfrid-PelletierSalle Wilfrid-Pelletier is a large multipurpose venue in Montréal, Québec equipped with sophisticated technical equipment. It seats 2,982 people and is part of the Place des Arts cultural complex in Montréal's Quartier des Spectacles entertainment district....
of the Place des ArtsPlace des Artsright|frame|View of the Place des Arts esplanade. The Musée d'art contemporain is on the left; behind it is the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, with the Théâtre Maisonneuve on the rightPlace des Arts is a major performing arts centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada....
in Montréal, on February 18 and 19 2005) - Gilbert Patenaude. Compagnons des Amériques : poètes québécois mis en musique, Montréal: Disques XXI, 2005, 1 disk
- Jean ChatillonJean ChatillonJean Chatillon is a Canadian composer.Chatillon was born of a family of musicians, in 1937, in Nicolet, Quebec. In 1951 he began to play piano and to compose. At first self-taught, then he undertook serious musical studies with the master Conrad Letendre in Montreal...
. Clair de lune sur les eaux du rêve, Bécancour: Éditions de l'Écureuil noir, 2001 (1 disk) - Jacques HétuJacques HétuJacques Hétu, OC was a Canadian composer and music educator from Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He was nominated for a 1989 Juno Award in the Best Classical Composition category...
. Le tombeau de Nelligan : mouvement symphonique opus 52, Saint-Nicolas: Doberman-Yppan, 1995 (1 partition: 44 pages) - John CratonJohn CratonJohn Douglas Craton is an American classical composer. His works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe. While his compositions cover a diverse range, he is best known for his operas and works for classical mandolin.-Biography:...
. Jardin sentimental : Cinq poèmes d’Émile Nelligan, Bedford, Ind: Wolfhead Music, 2004, 18 pages. - André Gagnon and Claude Léveillée. Monique Leyrac chante Emile Nelligan, Verdun: Disques Mérite, 1991, 1 disk
- André Gagnon. Nelligan : livret d'opéra, Montréal: Leméac, 1990, 90 pages (text by Michel TremblayMichel TremblayMichel Tremblay, CQ is a Canadian novelist and playwright.Tremblay grew up in the Plateau Mont-Royal, a French-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal, at the time of his birth a neighbourhood with a working-class character and joual dialect, something that would heavily influence his work...
) - Jacques Hétu. Les abîmes du rêve : opus 36, Montréal: Sociéte nouvelle d'enregistrement, 1987, duration 30:21
- Richard G. Boucher. Anges maudits, veuillez m'aider! : cantate dramatique sur des poèmes d'Émile Nelligan, Montréal: Radio Canada international, 1981, duration 38 min.
- Omer LétourneauOmer LétourneauOmer Létourneau was a Québécois pianist, organist, composer and orchestra conductor.A pupil of Joseph-Arthur Bernier, Létourneau won the Prix d'Europe in 1913. In 1917 he directed the production of L'Accordée de village in the Auditorium de Québec in Quebec City which included performances from...
. Violon de villanelle : choeur pour voix de femmes, Québec: Procure générale de musique enr., 1940 (1 partition: 8 pages)
Collections
- 1903 - Émile Nelligan et son œuvre, Montréal: Beauchemin (Louis Dantin) online
- 1952 - Poésies complètes : 1896-1899, Montréal: Fides (Luc Lacourcière)
- 1966 - Poèmes choisis, Montréal: Fides (Eloi de Grandmont)
- 1980 - Poèmes choisis, Montréal: Fides (Roger Chamberland)
- 1982 - 31 Poèmes autographes : 2 carnets d'hôpital, 1938, Trois-Rivières: Forges
- 1991 - Le Récital des anges : 50 poèmes d'Émile Nelligan, Trois-Rivières: Forges (Claude Beausoleil)
- 1991 - Oeuvres complètes, Montréal: Fides, 2 volumes (Réjean Robidoux and Paul Wyczynski)
- 1991 - Poèmes autographes, Montréal: Fides, 1991, (Paul Wyczynski)
- 1995 - Poésie en version originale, Montréal: Triptyque (André Marquis)
- 1997 - Poèmes choisis : le récital de l'ange, Saint-Hippolyte: Noroît (Jocelyne Felx)
- 1998 - Poésies complètes, La Table Ronde: Paris, 1998
In translation
- Selected Poems - 1960 (translated by P. F. Widdows)
- The Complete Poems of Emile Nelligan - 1982 (translated by Fred CogswellFred CogswellFred Cogswell, CM was a Canadian poet.Born in East Centreville, New Brunswick he served overseas in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. A teacher at the age of sixteen, Cogswell gained a BA and MA at the University of New Brunswick and received a PhD from Edinburgh University...
)
In English
- Jacques Michon. "Émile Nelligan Biography (1879–1941)", in Literature Reference: American Literature, English Literature, Classics & Modern Fiction, 2009
- Nina Milner. "Émile Nelligan (1879-1941)", in Canadian Poetry Archive, November 28, 2003
- Talbot, Emile (2002). Reading Nelligan, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 221 p. ISBN 0-7735-2318-9
- Fred Cogswell (1983). The Complete Poems of Émile Nelligan, Montréal: Harvest House, 120 p. ISBN 0887722180
- P.F. Widdows (1960). Selected Poems by Émile Nelligan, Toronto: Ryerson, 39 p.
In French
On his work and life- Sui Caedere, "Thrène" (2009). Music album is a tribute to Quebec’s damned poet Émile Nelligan, a man who saw beyond the dream, beyond the paradox of life. Contains 9 haunting tracks.
- Lemieux, Pierre Hervé (2004). Nelligan et Françoise : l'intrigue amoureuse la plus singulière de la fin du 19e siècle québécois : biographie reconstituée à l'occasion du centième anniversiare de la publication du recueil de poésie d'Émile Nelligan, 1904-2004, Lévis: Fondation littéraire Fleur de lys, 537 p. ISBN 2-89612-025-4
- Wyczynski, Paul (2002). Album Nelligan : une biographie en images, Saint-Laurent: Fides, 2002, 435 pages ISBN 2-7621-2191-4
- Wyczynski, Paul (1999). Émile Nelligan : biographie, Saint-Laurent: Bibliothèque Québécoise, 1999, 345 p. ISBN 2-89406-150-1 (édition originale : Nelligan, 1879-1941, Montréal: Fides, 1987)
- Beausoleil, Claude. "Émile Nelligan et le temps", in Nuit blanche, numero 74, Spring 1999
- Beaudoin, Réjean (1997). Une Étude des Poésies d'Émile Nelligan, Montréal: Boréal, 106 p.
- Vanasse, André (1996). Émile Nelligan, le spasme de vivre, Montréal: XYZ, 201 p. ISBN 2-89261-179-2 (biographie romancée)
- Lemieux, Pierre H. "La nouvelle édition critique de Nelligan", in Lettres québécoises, numero 66, Summer 1992
- Whitfield, Agnès (1988). "Nelligan, de l'homme à l'œuvre", in Lettres québécoises, numéro 49, Spring 1988
- Courteau, Bernard (1986). Nelligan n'était pas fou!, Montréal: Louise Courteau, 161 p. ISBN 2892390354
- Courteau, Bernard (1982). Pour un plaisir de verbe : carnets et cahiers d'Emile Nelligan, Montréal: Editions Emile-Nelligan, 74 p. ISBN 2920217119
- Bertrand, Réal (1980). Émile Nelligan, Montréal: Lidec, 62 p. ISBN 276083249X
- Wyczynski, Paul (1973). Bibliographie descriptive et critique d'Emile Nelligan, Ottawa : Editions de l'Université d'Ottawa, 319 p. ISBN 077663951X
- Wyczynski, Paul (1965). Poésie et symbole : perspectives du symbolisme : Emile Nelligan, Saint-Denys Garneau, Anne Hébert : le langage des arbres, Montréal: Librairie Déom, 252 p.
- Wyczynski, Paul (1960). Émile Nelligan : sources et originalité de son oeuvre, Ottawa: Éditions de l'Université d'Ottawa, 349 p.