Conversations

By (author): Herménégilde Chiasson

Translated by: Jo-Anne Elder

Conversations, a collection of poetry that won the 1999 Governor General’s Award (French Language), is a sequence of 999 numbered fragments that record the essence of verbal interactions between two people. Over a period of a year, Herménégilde Chiasson captured snatches of conversations overheard, conversations he had with other people, even reported conversations. Then he distilled what was said and his observations into a series of single sentences, each attributed to a strangely impersonal He or She. Chiasson has likened his concept to the visual experience of driving: a succession of flashes zooming by, the connections only intuited. The blank spot for entry number 1000 underlines a Zen-like philosophy that suggests that nothing is ever fully completed. In subject matter and technique, Conversations fuses tradition and modernity. Chiasson continues his exploration of the often uncomfortable zone where the mechanical or artificial meets human emotion and spirit. The format participates in the strong and lively Acadian oral tradition, yet the sentences themselves are polished literary jewels, almost epigrammatic in their compactness.

Conversations is at the same time as public as a news broadcast and as private as a lover’s unspoken thoughts. With ten personal collections of poetry, Herménégilde Chiasson’s body of work is among the most prolific in Acadian poetry. Mourir à Scoudouc was published in 1974 to critical acclaim in Acadie and Quebec. In 1976, he made a radical departure in style with his collection of anti-poetry Rapport sur l’état de mes illusions. Busy with filmmaking, the visual arts, and playwrighting, it was a decade before Chiasson published Prophéties in 1986. The 1990s were a prolific time for Chiasson’s poetry. His 1991 collections Vous and Existences, broke new ground in the field of experimental poetry and Vous was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. Vermeer and Miniatures continued Chiasson’s quest to blend the visual with the oral in a unique poetic style. In 1996, Chiasson produced Climats. It was hailed as one of modern Acadie’s strongest poetic works and was the first of his books to be translated into English. Climates brought Chiasson his second Governor General’s Award nomination. In 1999, Chiasson won the Governor General’s Award for his landmark poetic work Conversations, now available in English from Goose Lane Editions.

AUTHOR

Herménégilde Chiasson

Herménégilde Chiasson is one of Canada’s most accomplished writer-artists. He is the author of more than 20 books of poetry, over 30 plays, and several collections of essays. A multi-disciplinary artist, he has received numerous awards for his work, including the Governor General’s Award for poetry, the Molson Prize, le prix France-Acadie, le Grand prix de la francophonie canadienne, the prestigious Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and the Prix littéraire Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie. From 2003 to 2009, he served as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick.

AUTHOR

Jo-Anne Elder

Born in East Centreville, New Brunswick, Canadian poet Fred Cogswell (1917-2004) served overseas in the Canadian Army during the Second World War. Cogswell published numerous collections of poetry including Black and White Tapestry (1989), In Praise of Old Music (1992) and The Trouble With Light (1996). In 1958, Cogswell, along with close friend and travelling poet Warren Kinthompson and a group of students and faculty from the University of New Brunswick, founded Fiddlehead Poetry Books, now one of Canada’s important small press publishers operating asGoose Lane Editions. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1981.

Reviews

The images flash by, one after the other, and intuition supplies the connections. For a year, Herménégilde Chiasson captured fragments of conversation, and he compressed and polished them into sentences for two speakers, He and She. Numbering these utterances from one to 999, Chiasson left 1000 blank, mute testimony to the incompleteness of human communication.
“With a moving and incantatory poetic force, Conversations is rooted in the sonorous rhythmic resources of a language on the verge of ultrasound… An Acadian version of the expression of humanity.”
– Governor General’s Award jury citation

“Epigrammatic, intense… like time-release capsules, waiting to be felt… The writing builds toward stateliness. Each poem is its own landscape, which makes the implication of the title interesting. Here, the two speakers don’t talk to each other, don’t answer each other’s questions, don’t overlap. The layout of the book keeps them in discrete units of type, like paintings hanging opposite each other: a clean look, a cinematographic tone, a controlled direction.”
Georgia Straight

“Intriguing and resonant… worth thinking about.”
– iToronto Star

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Excerpts & Samples ×

Conversations, a collection of poetry that won the 1999 Governor General’s Award (French Language), is a sequence of 999 numbered fragments that record the essence of verbal interactions between two people. Over a period of a year, Herménégilde Chiasson captured snatches of conversations overheard, conversations he had with other people, even reported conversations. Then he distilled what was said and his observations into a series of single sentences, each attributed to a strangely impersonal He or She. Chiasson has likened his concept to the visual experience of driving: a succession of flashes zooming by, the connections only intuited. The blank spot for entry number 1000 underlines a Zen-like philosophy that suggests that nothing is ever fully completed. In subject matter and technique, Conversations fuses tradition and modernity. Chiasson continues his exploration of the often uncomfortable zone where the mechanical or artificial meets human emotion and spirit. The format participates in the strong and lively Acadian oral tradition, yet the sentences themselves are polished literary jewels, almost epigrammatic in their compactness.

Conversations is at the same time as public as a news broadcast and as private as a lover’s unspoken thoughts. With ten personal collections of poetry, Herménégilde Chiasson’s body of work is among the most prolific in Acadian poetry. Mourir à Scoudouc was published in 1974 to critical acclaim in Acadie and Quebec. In 1976, he made a radical departure in style with his collection of anti-poetry Rapport sur l’état de mes illusions. Busy with filmmaking, the visual arts, and playwrighting, it was a decade before Chiasson published Prophéties in 1986. The 1990s were a prolific time for Chiasson’s poetry. His 1991 collections Vous and Existences, broke new ground in the field of experimental poetry and Vous was nominated for a Governor General’s Award. Vermeer and Miniatures continued Chiasson’s quest to blend the visual with the oral in a unique poetic style. In 1996, Chiasson produced Climats. It was hailed as one of modern Acadie’s strongest poetic works and was the first of his books to be translated into English. Climates brought Chiasson his second Governor General’s Award nomination. In 1999, Chiasson won the Governor General’s Award for his landmark poetic work Conversations, now available in English from Goose Lane Editions.

Reader Reviews

Details

Dimensions:

156 Pages
8.5in * 5.5in * 0.36in
190gr

Published:

October 15, 2001

Publisher:

Goose Lane Editions

ISBN:

9780864923196

9781773100593 – MobiPocket

9781773100586 – EPUB

Book Subjects:

POETRY / Canadian

Featured In:

All Books

Language:

eng

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