Yves Bonnefoy. The Digamma

Abstract

   The review concerns the Russian publication of the final three collections of poetry and prose by the French poet, art critic, and translator Yves Bonnefoy (1923–2016): The Present Hour, The Digamma, and Together Still. Bonnefoy’s regular translator Mark Grinberg (1953–2023), whose first renderings of the French poet’s works date back to the mid-1990s, remains true to himself and modestly describes his input as ‘elements of interpretation that facilitates or adds nuances to the understanding of the text.’ Meanwhile, the translator’s commentary to the reviewed edition of Bonnefoy’s last works, which coincidentally happens to be Grinberg’s last book as well, is uncharacteristically extensive. It offers more specific and often entirely new wording that clarifies the translator’s earlier interpretations of Bonnefoy’s personal myth, his poetics and vocabulary, the polemic with Heidegger, and, ultimately, the place of a 20^th-c. poet in the history of French poetry. This extensive and meaningful commentary reveals a special affinity between the author and his translator.