"Air of Solitude" Followed by "Requiem"
Gustave Roud, perhaps the most beloved poet of Swiss Romandy, is widely considered the founder of modern francophone Swiss literature, along with Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz. Roud lived at his grandfather’s farm in Carrouge, Canton Vaud, for his entire life. In Air of Solitude, the first section of this two-part book, he stalks the structures and fields of his youth, composing memories out of his landscape. The narrator appears homegrown, expressing nostalgia for what is already in front of him. Yet, like an outsider, he remains distinctly elsewhere, unable to participate in the workday rituals of the men around him—a stalking shadow of unfulfilled yearning for affection and belonging. Air of Solitude explores the rural bodies and lives of the Vaudois, returning again and again to the desired male laborer Aimé.
 
Between each section of Air of Solitude, Roud inserts short vignettes that provide fleeting and lyrical images that resemble allusions to half-forgotten memories. However, Roud leaves the relationship between the titled sections and the interludes ambiguous. As the book concludes with Requiem, the remnants of narrative shatter, leaving behind only the spectral tatters of memory as Roud confronts the enigma of loss in peerless, jewel-studded elegiac prose. With these two tales, Roud revives the pastoral tradition and injects it with distinctly modernist anxiety and disillusionment.
 
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"Air of Solitude" Followed by "Requiem"
Gustave Roud, perhaps the most beloved poet of Swiss Romandy, is widely considered the founder of modern francophone Swiss literature, along with Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz. Roud lived at his grandfather’s farm in Carrouge, Canton Vaud, for his entire life. In Air of Solitude, the first section of this two-part book, he stalks the structures and fields of his youth, composing memories out of his landscape. The narrator appears homegrown, expressing nostalgia for what is already in front of him. Yet, like an outsider, he remains distinctly elsewhere, unable to participate in the workday rituals of the men around him—a stalking shadow of unfulfilled yearning for affection and belonging. Air of Solitude explores the rural bodies and lives of the Vaudois, returning again and again to the desired male laborer Aimé.
 
Between each section of Air of Solitude, Roud inserts short vignettes that provide fleeting and lyrical images that resemble allusions to half-forgotten memories. However, Roud leaves the relationship between the titled sections and the interludes ambiguous. As the book concludes with Requiem, the remnants of narrative shatter, leaving behind only the spectral tatters of memory as Roud confronts the enigma of loss in peerless, jewel-studded elegiac prose. With these two tales, Roud revives the pastoral tradition and injects it with distinctly modernist anxiety and disillusionment.
 
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"Air of Solitude" Followed by "Requiem"

Overview

Gustave Roud, perhaps the most beloved poet of Swiss Romandy, is widely considered the founder of modern francophone Swiss literature, along with Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz. Roud lived at his grandfather’s farm in Carrouge, Canton Vaud, for his entire life. In Air of Solitude, the first section of this two-part book, he stalks the structures and fields of his youth, composing memories out of his landscape. The narrator appears homegrown, expressing nostalgia for what is already in front of him. Yet, like an outsider, he remains distinctly elsewhere, unable to participate in the workday rituals of the men around him—a stalking shadow of unfulfilled yearning for affection and belonging. Air of Solitude explores the rural bodies and lives of the Vaudois, returning again and again to the desired male laborer Aimé.
 
Between each section of Air of Solitude, Roud inserts short vignettes that provide fleeting and lyrical images that resemble allusions to half-forgotten memories. However, Roud leaves the relationship between the titled sections and the interludes ambiguous. As the book concludes with Requiem, the remnants of narrative shatter, leaving behind only the spectral tatters of memory as Roud confronts the enigma of loss in peerless, jewel-studded elegiac prose. With these two tales, Roud revives the pastoral tradition and injects it with distinctly modernist anxiety and disillusionment.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780857426871
Publisher: Seagull Books
Publication date: 04/04/2020
Series: The Swiss List
Edition description: 1st Edition
Pages: 192
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Gustave Roud (1897-1976) was a major Swiss poet and photographer whose works include Ecrits and Campagne perdue. He also translated many German writers including Rilke, Hölderlin, and Novalis. Alexander Dickow is a poet, literary scholar, and translator. He is the author of Appetites and has translated works by Henri Droguet, Max Jacob, and Guillaume Apollinaire, among others. Sean T. Reynolds is a literary scholar, poet, and translator living in Chicago. He is coeditor of Jack Spicer’s Translations of Beowulf.
 

Table of Contents

'Our lives are Swiss,- / So still, so cool…' vii

A Foreword Antonio Rodriguez

Air of Solitude 1

Prayer for a Stain upon the Eyes 3

Presences at Port-des-Prés 4

Extreme Autumn 11

Letter 16

Bullfinch 26

Narrative 31

Pigeons 39

Farewell to a Dead Road 44

The March Woodcutter 50

Air of Solitude 55

Point of View 61

Angel 66

Pigeon 69

Fernand against the Sky 75

Aimé's Slumber 78

Prairie's Powers 82

Difference 88

Of a Certain Purity 94

Ancient November 103

Memory 111

Requiem 115

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