Poetry
Simple voyelle
Not translated into English
Esther Nirina · 1980
Synopsis
Short poems, written in French in Orléans by a Malagasy woman settled in France since 1953. Sparing of words but rich in meaning, rhythm and music, this poetry joins the concision and hermeticism of the hainteny, the Malagasy poetic joust, to lessons drawn from reading in which Neruda, Bataille or Char count; it speaks of the fragile bond between nature and men, the nostalgia for the highlands of her birth, and a meditation in which each word seems to weigh its weight in gold.
Context
The collection appeared in Orléans from Jean-Jacques Sergent, who had published five years earlier a first ten-page booklet by the poet, who had been encouraged to write by Hélène Cadou, widow of the poet René Guy Cadou, after she read one of her poems. The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds a copy dated 1981, without pagination, with an errata slip. It was reprinted in 1998 in her poetic works, published in Saint-Denis de La Réunion, then in her complete works in 2019.
Who it is for
Short poems, in French, of great economy of words; each finds its own way in its own manner.
Prizes and reception
Grand Literary Prize of Madagascar of the Association of French-language Writers, in 1980.