Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; Marguerite Yourcenar
8 June 1903 – 17 December 1987
Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
Belgian-French-American author & translator
“A man who reads, reflects, or plans belongs to a species rather than to his sex; in his best moments he rises even above the human.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) trans. Grace Frick, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955, p. 165; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org
Extended excerpt [Fictional autobiography of the Roman Emperor Hadrian]:
“I should have desired more: to see the human creature unadorned, alone with herself as she indeed must have been at least sometimes, in illness or after the death of a first-born child, or when a wrinkle began to show in her mirror. A man who reads, reflects, or plans belongs to a species rather than to his sex; in his best moments he rises even above the human. But my fair loves seemed to glory in thinking only as women: the mind, or perhaps the soul, that I searched for was never more than a perfume.” (p. 64)
French text [Title: Mémoires d’Hadrien]: “Un homme qui lit, ou qui pense, ou qui calculi, appartient à l’espèce et non au sexe; dans ses meilleurs moments, il échappe meme à l’humain.” (p. 75)
[French text source: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951) Éditions Gallimard, 1974, p. 75; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org]
Alternative translation [Translator Grace Frick, 1955]: “I should have desired more: to see the human creature unadorned, alone with herself as she indeed must have been at least sometimes, in illness or after the death of a first-born child, or when a wrinkle began to show in her mirror. A man who reads, reflects, or plans belongs to a species rather than to his sex; in his best moments he rises even above the human. But my fair loves seemed to glory in thinking only as women: the mind, or perhaps the soul, that I searched for was never more than a perfume.” (p. 64)
[Alternative translation source: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) trans. Grace Frick, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955, p. 65; online via Open Library [free subscription service] www.openlibrary.org]
Source link [Featured source]: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951|1955 Farrar, Straus & Young English edition) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofhadrianyourrich#page/64/mode/2up/search/reads
Source link [French text]: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951|1955 Gallimard) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoiresdhadrien00your#page/74/search/homme+qui+lit
“A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
“New Immortal” (16 February 1981) TIME magazine, [no author named] Vol. 117, No. 7, New York, NY: Time, Inc. ‘Books,’ p. 80, column 2; online via ‘The Vault’, [subscription service] www.time.com/vault
Extended excerpt [Article following the announcement of Yourcenar’s admission to the Académie française ]:
“When the girl was 16, her papa privately published her first work of verse, and the two devised Marguerite’s almost anagrammatic nom de plume. Reviewing her own debut, Yourcenar admits, “A young musician plays scales in his room and only bores his family. A beginning writer, on the other hand, sometimes has the misfortune of getting into print.” (p. 80, column 2)
Source link: “New Immortal” (16 February 1981) online via ‘The Vault,’ TIME magazine [subscription service]: http://time.com/vault/issue/1981-02-16/page/80/
“Every bliss achieved is a masterpiece; the slightest error turns it awry, and it alters with one touch of doubt; any heaviness detracts from its charm, the least stupidity renders it dull.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) trans. Grace Frick, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955, p. 165; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org
French text: “Tout Bonheur est un chef-d’œuvre: la moindre erreur le fausse, la moindre hesitation l’altère, la moindre lourdeur le dépare, la moindre sottise l’abêtit. Le mien n’est responsable en rien de celles ne mes imprudences qui plus tard l’one brisé: tant que j’ai agi dans son sens, j’ai été sage.” (p. 172)
[French text source: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951) Éditions Gallimard, 1974, p. 180; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org]
Source link [Featured source]: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951|1955 Farrar, Straus & Young English edition) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofhadrianyourrich#page/164/mode/2up/search/masterpiece
Source link [French text]: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951|1955 Gallimard) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoiresdhadrien00your#page/180/search/tout+bonheur
“Let us try, if we can, to enter into death with open eyes.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) trans. Grace Frick, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955, p. 297; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org
Extended excerpt [Fictional autobiography of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. Final lines of book; ellipsis is original to cited source and does not represent missing text.]:
“Little soul, gentle and drifting, guest and companion of my body, now you will dwell below in pallid places, stark and bare; there you will abandon your play of yore. But one moment still, let us gaze together on these familiar shores, on these objects which doubtless we shall not see again…Let us try, if we can, to enter into death with open eyes…” (p. 297)
French text [Title: Mémoires d’Hadrien]: “Petite âme, âme tendre et flottante, compagne de mon corps, qui fut ton hôte, tu vas descendre dans ces lieux pales, durs et nus, où tu devras renoncer aux jeux d’autrefois. Un instant encore, regardons ensemble les rives familières, les objets que sans doute nous ne reverrons plus… Tâchons d’entrer dans la mort les yeux ouverts…” (p. 316)
[French text source: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951) Éditions Gallimard, 1974, p. 316; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org]
Source link: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951|1955 Farrar, Straus & Young English edition) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofhadrianyourrich#page/296/mode/2up/search/open+eyes
Source link [French text]: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951|1955 Gallimard) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoiresdhadrien00your#page/316/search/petite+ame
“Morals are a matter of private agreement; decency is of public concern.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
Memoirs of Hadrian (1951) trans. Grace Frick, New York: Farrar, Straus & Young, 1955, p. 108; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org
:
“Morals are a matter of private agreement; decency is of public concern. Any conspicuous license has always struck me as a tawdry display.” (p. 108)
French text [Title: Mémoires d’Hadrien]: “La morale est une convention privée: la décence est affaire publique; toute licence trop visible m’a toujours fait l’effet d’un étalage de mauvais aloi.”
[French text source: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951) Éditions Gallimard, 1974, pp. 199-120; online via Open Library [free subscription service] openlibrary.org]
Source link [Featured source]: Memoirs of Hadrian (1951|1955 Farrar, Straus & Young English edition) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoirsofhadrianyourrich#page/108/mode/2up/search/agreement
Source link [French text]: Mémoires d’Hadrien (1951|1955 Gallimard) online via Open Library [free subscription service]: https://archive.org/stream/memoiresdhadrien00your#page/118/search/la+morale+est
“We say: mad with joy. We should say: wise with grief.”
~Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian-French author
Fires (1935) trans. Dori Katz, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994, p. 79
Extended excerpt [Fiction. Italics as it appears in cited text.]:
“My God, I place my body between your hands again.
We say: mad with joy. We should say: wise with grief.
To possess is the same thing as to know: the Bible is always right. Love is a sorcerer: it knows the secrets, love is a dowser: it knows the sources.” (p. 79)
Source notes: According to the cited text, Dori Katz’s 1981 English translation was “in collaboration with the author.”
To date, Repeat Right has not reviewed the French language copy of the text. (Title: Feux )
Source: Library – Fires (1935|1994 University of Chicago) International Standard Book Number (ISBN) 0-226-96528-7
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