<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div></div><div><div></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Second grouping (on Stein)</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br></span></div><div>GERTRUDE STEIN GRAMMATICUS (essay)</div><div>Gertrude Stein and the making of Frenchmen (essay)</div><div></div></div><div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Third grouping (novel project)</span></div><div>excerpt from THE LOOP (prose) (trans Jeff Fort)</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/03/fiction/an-excerpt-from-jacques-roubauds-forthcoming-novel-the-loop">http://www.brooklynrail.org/2009/03/fiction/an-excerpt-from-jacques-roubauds-forthcoming-novel-the-loop</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div><div>afterword from THE LOOP (essay) (by Jeff Fort)</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>B. context</div></div><div><div></div><div><br></div></div><div>Jacques Roubaud is an eminent French poet, novelist, translator and essayist. A leading member of the Oulipo, he has long practiced a wide variety of constraint based procedures in composing the books that were supposed to take their place in a fully realized (and admittedly idealized) literary project which, according to the multi-volume novel* which tells its story, came to him in a dream in 1966. The list of titles that participate in this lifework are ample and wide-ranging in nature and genre; a selected bibliography of JR's works to date may be viewed here: <a href="http://www.oulipo.net/oulipiens/docs/jr-bibliographie-1967-2006">http://www.oulipo.net/oulipiens/docs/jr-bibliographie-1967-2006</a></div><div><br></div><div>Among his many other interests (Troubadour poetry,Japanese court poetry, Mathematics), Roubaud has a long standing investment in English literature and contemporary American poetry. His English is very good, despite what he says to the contrary. With Michel Deguy, he published an important anthology of contemporary American poetry (Vingt poètes américains, 1980) and has translated works by the Objectivists, David Antin, Lyn Hejinian, Joan Retallack, and Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop. He's also translated Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark." But, for the occasion of our meeting with him at the Beinecke, it should be noted that Roubaud is a dedicated reader of Gertrude Stein and one of her most respected French translators. The attached PDF entitled SteinGrammaticus is an English translation of a talk he recently gave about Stein's poetics. I have also attached an article about "Gertrude Stein and the Making of Frenchmen" (RRHubert) for those of you who are particularly interested in Stein's influence in France.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Just this spring, the sixth and final volume of "the great fire of london" (*the general title of aforementioned multi-volume novel) appeared in France, printed in full color. In the US, this April, the second volume of that novel, THE LOOP (Dalkey Archive Press), is going to appear in translation, and this is in part the occasion for Roubaud's current visit to the US. That long prose work elaborated a series of visible and invisible constraints, the most obvious of which is a tendency to digress. The attached PDF entitled LOOP contains, near the end, a short excerpt from this new translation; and the PDF entitled Afterword, is the translators note about that text. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Also this Spring, Cole Swensen's La Presse is publishing a volume entitled EXCHANGES IN LIGHT. Copies of that book should be made available to group members within a week. It is a series of conversations about, well, the nature of light. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Two additional short essays and one poem sequence complete the list of readings included in this missive. "CIRCLES IN MEDITATION" are prose poems excerpted from _The plurality of worlds of Lewis_, and they are the most classically 'poetic' of the items included herewith. COMPOSE&CONDENSE is a concise statement of Roubaud's poetics. POETRY&ORALITY is a short argument about the multiple lives of poems, some of which is rephrased in the following sonnet, which I offer (in translation) in conclusion this list. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div><br></div><div>Jean-Jacques</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none; text-autospace:none"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Palatino"> <!--StartFragment--></font></p><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Palatino"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Meaning<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The written meaning wRitten, the oral, aural;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> The hand passing on the page riddles its surface<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> With (w)holes, a sandy-screen where the eye bears witness,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> While, borne of those same spreading rays, the choral<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Air fills with present sounds, which the page effaces.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> The private and public meanings are sack racing,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> Their wills under constraint, they are interlacing<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> Fearful noises, from inside, outside such places.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Of this, nothing but this, and all of this, at least<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> One can say: how rare the trusted who do not cease<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> Observing the entirety. Whatever thought<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Upon it’s thrown, a poem remains ever fast,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt;line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> Impervious to opinion, its sense is wrought:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:8.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville;mso-ansi-language:EN-US"> It is woof and warp of words by a voice gaze cast.</span><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Baskerville"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </font><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div> <!--EndFragment--> </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>By Jacques Roubaud (from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Chruchill 40</span>)<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>The Working Group in Contemporary Poetics meets in Rm 116 of the Whitney Humanities Center from 3-5, roughly every other Friday. This group is open to all visitors and interested parties. Feel free to spread the word. To sign up for punctual email notices, please go to: <a href="http://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com/working-group-in-contemporary-poetry/">http://beineckepoetry.wordpress.com/working-group-in-contemporary-poetry/</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>C. LINKS. </div><div><br></div><div>For further information about the OULIPO and Jacques ROUBAUD visit some of these sites:</div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div>Official OULIPO webste</div></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.oulipo.net">http://www.oulipo.net</a>/ </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">essay: "A defense of Poetry" by J. Roubaud</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://international.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/">http://international.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">index.php?obj_id=366&x=1</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Poems: </div></div></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">“Lipo: 1st Manifesto,” by François Le Lionnais (Trans. W. Motte)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><a href="http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/article/show/80">http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/article/show/80</a></font></div><div><br></div></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Poems in Oulipo (Ou-x-po) dossier (ed. Jean-Jacques Poucel)</div></div></div></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.drunkenboat.com/db8/index.html">http://www.drunkenboat.com/db8/index.html</a> </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Dossier about Roubaud's arborescent prose "the great fire of London"</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/casebooks/introduction_london">http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/casebooks/introduction_london</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">"On Reading Jacques Roubaud" (by John Taylor)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/article/show/136">http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/article/show/136</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>BIO</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Jacques Roubaud has been a member of the Oulipo since 1966. Now retired, he has been a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Paris X Nanterre, and a Professor of Poetics at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. His books include: ∈ (signe d'appartenance) (1967), Quelque chose noir (1986), 'Le grand incendie de Londres' (1989), La Boucle (1993), Poésie, etcetera: ménage (1995), La forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas, que le coeur des humains (1999), Churchill 40 (2004) and, with Florence Delay, Graal théatre (2005). Many of his works are available in English, including The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, than the Human Heart (Dalkey Archive, 2006; Translation Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop).</font></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div></div></div><div>ps- for those of you who read French and are interested in Arthurian Romance, contact <a href="mailto:jean-jacques.poucel@yale.edu">jean-jacques.poucel@yale.edu</a> to attend a short discussion of the Delay/Roubaud play version of <i>Galaad</i> scheduled for Friday March 27, 6pm. </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><br></body></html>