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Writers in Residence
John F. Deane : In The City Of Saint Dévote
Monaco – Wednesday 12th April 2006
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John F Deane piece in
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John F Deane à la Princess Grace Irish Library
Poète et traducteur des oeuvres de Jacques
Rancourt, Alexandre Voisard et Anise Koltz, John
F. Deane vient de terminer son mois de résidence
en tant que boursier de l’Ireland Fund of Monaco* à la
Bibliothèque Irlandaise Princesse Grace.
Poème à 38 mains: Malgré l’ambiance
studieuse, il y avait une certaine allégresse
dans l’air il y a quelques jours à la
Bibliothèque Irlandaise Princesse Grace; nous
vous rappelons qu’elle fonctionne a Monaco
Ville sous l’égide de la Fondation Princesse
Grace. L’auteur irlandaise John F. Deane a
animé un atelier de poésie pour 18 élèves
de première littéraire, section européenne
(Lycée Albert I, Monaco) et leur professeur
d’anglais Elisabeth Gondeau. A l’ordre
du jour… la rédaction d’un poème
en anglais. Rien que ça! Chaque poète
en herbe a composé individuellement quelques
lignes qui seront retravaillées et tissées
par John F. Dean afin de créer un “poème à 38
mains”.
Conférence pour Les Amis de la Bibliothèque:
John F. Deane a profité de son séjour
en Principauté pour s’adresser également
aux Amis de la Bibliothèque sur la thème
La Religion de la Poésie, La Poésie
de la Religion.
*Depuis sa création en 2002, la bourse “Ireland
Fund of Monaco”, a permis à sept auteurs
ou universitaires irlandais, sélectionnés
par un comité à Dublin, de travailler
pendant un mois dans le cadre feutré de la
Bibliothèque irlandaise Princesse Grace.
| John F. Deane
writes... |
The
spectacular beauty of Monaco, sea, cliff,
harbour and surrounding mountains, has an
initially overwhelming effect. There is a
magical quality to the light, ever-changing,
and to the colour of the Mediterranean and
the nervous skies. And if in Ireland the legends
of Saint Patrick buoy us up so in Monaco the
legends of Saint Dévote are omnipresent
and uplifting. In the early fourth century
she was martyred in Corsica and the pious people,
hurt for her, placed her body in a boat that
she might float away to Africa and find Christian
burial. However, storms brought her, guided
by a dove that appeared from her mouth, to
the shores of Monaco where she performed miracles
and became guardian angel of the place. I discovered
small bones of Saint Dévote in several
churches of the Principality; her strange voyage,
her even stranger arrival on Monaco’s
shores, and that dove of peace that guided
her to this most beautiful spot, hymn the glory
of this place.
My hopes of writing over a longer period than
I can usually manage were realized in the Princess
Grace Irish Library. The guardian angels, Judith
and Geraldine, were always discreet, always
alert to help and encourage. I had a room both
silent and loud with the great collection of
Irish authors surrounding me, I breathed in
deeply and dived once more into the work of
Samuel Beckett, a fine collection of books
within reach of my hand; I had a desk, my laptop,
a slightly mocking statue of Brendan Behan
watching me: I could do nothing else but write.
If inspiration,
that strange and seldom visitor, is longed
for, that it might float in on the air the
way Saint Dévote floated in
on the tide, then I was blessed by visitations
and developed a new collection of poems, to
be called “A Little Book of Hours”,
nodding to Rilke. But the longest period of
work centered on an attempt at a new novel
and the space and peace provided allowed me
to get the first draft finished. Easy here
to sigh with delighted relief and then stroll
out onto the rock, through the old and narrow
streets, to emerge on the square in front of
the palace where, almost invariably, an enviable
sun was shining and tourists already shifted
restlessly about; a large cappuccino, a visit
to the cathedral where Prince Rainier and the
glorious Princess Grace are buried and honoured,
and then back to the Princess’s library
for an afternoon session of work.
Down in the harbour cruising ships large as
football fields moved in and out; a constant
hammering and clanging of metal signaled the
building of stands for the Monaco Grand Prix;
private yachts, great jumbo jets of the ocean,
gleamed in the bright light, waiting on the
whims of their owners. Ursula, my wife, and
I strolled happily amongst all this wealth
and display, dwarfed but unphased, happy in
the sheer beauty of the place and the gentle
welcome extended to us by the citizens.
Soon I will be drifting away again from this
spot, like the soul of the saint, perhaps,
moving away under a gentle breeze but leaving
behind a great portion of my heart, blessing
this wonderful rock with all the thanks I can
muster for a privilege granted, for chapters
assembled for the many graces found. |
John F. Deane - Profile
“No other contemporary Irish poet, and
few Irish writers, have mastered the art of eloquent,
impassioned expression as artistic statement as beautifully
as John F. Deane”
– Eileen Battersby, “The
Irish Times”
Born Achill Island 1943; founded Poetry Ireland -
the National Poetry Society - and The Poetry Ireland
Review, 1979. Published several collections of poetry
and some fiction; poetry includes Christ, with Urban
Fox, a collection translated into several languages.
Won the O’Shaughnessy Award for Irish Poetry
1998 and in 2000 the Grand International Prize for
Poetry from Romania. Novel In the Name of the Wolf
published by Blackstaff Press, 1999, published in German
translation in 2001. A collection of short stories:
The Coffin Master, published by Blackstaff Press in
2000. Toccata and Fugue, New & Selected Poems,
came from Carcanet UK, in 2000 and poetry collections
in French and Bulgarian translation from Luxembourg
and Sofia, in Romanian and forthcoming in Italian,
and Swedish. Elected Secretary-General of the European
Academy of Poetry in 1996.. In 2000 awarded a bursary
in Literature from the Arts Council of Ireland and
in 2001 John F. Deane was given the prestigious Marten
Toonder Award for Literature. Publication of Undertow,
a novel from Blackstaff Press, 2002.
His poems in Italian,
translated by Roberto Cogo, won the 2002 “Premio
Internazionale di Poesia Città di Marineo”,
near Palermo, in Sicily, for the best foreign poetry
of the year. Latest collection of poems, Manhandling
the Deity, from Carcanet, May, 2003. In 2003 the collection
Manhandling the Deity was shortlisted for the T.S.Eliot
Prize and in 2004 Deane was elected to Aosdána,
the body established by the Arts Council to honour
artists “whose work had made an outstanding contribution
to the arts in Ireland”. His latest collection
of poems is The Instruments of Art, published in November,
2005 by Carcanet. The title poem from this collection
was awarded the Ted McNulty Prize for Irish Poetry
in 2004. He has also translated and published translations
of poetry from Swedish, Romanian and French. In 2006
he will be awarded the Ireland Fund bursary in the
Princess Grace Library, Monaco and a collection of
essays will be published, In Dogged Loyalty: The Religion
of Poetry, the Poetry of Religion (Columba Press).
In early 2006 the collection The Instruments of Art
was shortlisted for the Irish Times Poetry Now Award.
Work in progress, a new collection of poems to be titled
A Little Book of Hours. |
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