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I've been an offset printer, missionary, bank teller, janitor, consultant, and collector of quotations, sold mutual funds, surveyed scrub timberland, and taught freshman English. I currently work in corporate compliance and ethics. My greatest joy is the success of my son in overcoming great obstacles to find himself well on the way to success in a demanding academic discipline. |
JSAbsher |
Poetry |
© 2005 JS Absher • All Rights Reserved |
In my imaginary genealogy, my great-grandfather on the Absher side is not the unknown partner of Emma Absher, perhaps named Reeves, but Edgar Degas, on his second (and hitherto undocumented) trip to the Americas. On his trip to New Orleans, he had written Henri Rouart, "A few children of my own, is that excessive, too? No. I am dreaming of something well-done, a whole, well organized (style Poussin) and Corot's old age." (5 Dec. 1872; in Richard Kendall, ed., Degas by Himself (NY: Barnes and Nobel, 2004), p. 67. Near the end of this page I've placed three poems by Degas. I should like to be famous and unknown. --Edgar Degas to Alexis Rouart, cited by Antoine Terrasse, Degas (Secaucus, NJ: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1982), p. 58. One sees what one wants to see, and this falsehood constitutes art. --Edgar Degas, cited by Antoine Terrasse, p. 62. Convictions might be more dangerous enemies of truth than lies. . . . I call a lie: wanting not to see something one does see, wanting not to see something as one sees it. --Nietzsche, cited in Ben MacIntyre, Forgotten Fatherland, p. 149. Observer, c'est, pour la plus grande part, imaginer ce que l'on s'attend à voir. --Paul Valéry, Degas Dance Dessin, in Jean Hytier, ed., Oeuvres de Paul Valéry (Librairie Gallimard, 1960), II, p. 1169. Those that one loves the most are those one could hate the most. --Degas, cited by Antoine Terrasse, p. 25. It was during the war--1870--[that] ... James Tissot, the one who illustrated the Bible for Hachette … met Degas somewhere [and] told him that Cavalier (a sculptor) had been seriously wounded at Le Bourget, that he had seen him. 'I did a drawing of him--here, look.' Degas forcibly pushed away the sketch, refusing to look at it. 'You would have done better if you'd picked him up,' he said. --Daniel Halévy, My Friend Degas, trans. by Mina Curtiss (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1966), p. 118. In Hoby's translation of Castiglione's Courtier, Cardinal Bembo prays God "to correct the falsehood of the senses and, after long wandering in vanitie, to give us the right and sound joy." Degas, tendre pour peu de choses, ne s'adoucissait guere à l'egard de la critique et des théories. Il disait, volontiers,--et sur le tard le rabâchait,--que les Muses jamais ne discutent entre elles. Elles travaillent tout le jour, bien séparées. Le soir venu et la tâche accomplie, s'étant retrouvées, elles dansent: elles ne parlent pas. Il était cependant grand disputeur lui-même et raisonneur terrible, particulièrement excitable par la politique et par les dessin. Il ne cédait jamais, arrivait promptement aux éclats de la voix, j'etait les mots les plus durs, rompait net. Alceste, près de lui, eut fait figure d'homme faible et facile. --Paul Valéry, Degas, Dance, Dessin, p. 1165. All Paris knew him as a fighter, a recluse, guarding his privacy with cruel, crushing words. The habitués of the Paris boulevards defended themselves against his scorn by accusing him of insincerity. 'Degas,' they said, 'would like to see his reflection in a boulevard window in order to give himself the satisfaction of breaking the plate-glass with his cane.' --Daniel Halévy, My Friend Degas Art does not expand, it repeats itself. . . In order to produce good fruit one must line up on an espalier. One remains thus all one's life, arms extended, mouth open, so as to assimilate what is happening, what is around and alive. --Edgar Degas to Lorenze Frölich. Written from New Orleans, 27 Nov. 1872. In Richard Kendall, ed., Degas by Himself (NY: Barnes and Noble, 2004), p. 65. |
Degas, tender for few things, scarcely softened with regard to criticism and theories. He volunteered--and later would repeat--that the Muses never discuss among themselves. They work all day, well apart. In the evening, their tasks done, they come back together and dance: they do not talk. He was nevertheless a grand disputer and fierce reasoner, particularly excited by politics and drawing. He never yielded, immediately raised his voice, threw out the harshest words, and sharply cut off the conversation. Compared to him, Alceste was the figure of a weak and easy man. |
To observe is, for the most part, to imagine what one expects to see. |
Biographies |
Vive sensible un peu coquette Suivons la gloire et les plaisirs C'est à la fois la violette La rose amante du Zephyr Elle s'emporte elle s'apaise Elle pleure et sourit tour à tour En meme temps elle est française Et constante dans son amour. --Edgar Degas, composed in the period 1865-1868, in Theodore Reff, The Notebooks of Edgar Degas (New York: Hacker, 1985), I, p. 108. Danse, gamin ailé, sur les gazons de bois. Ton bras maigre, placé dans la ligne suivie Equilibre, balance et ton vol et ton poids. Je te veux, moi qui sais, une célebre vie. Nymphes, Graces, venez des cimes d'autrefois; Taglioni, venez, princesse d'Arcadie, Ennoblir et former, souriant de mon choix Ce petit être neuf, à la mine hardie. Si Montmartre a donné l'esprit et les aïeux Roxelane le nez, et la Chine les yeux, A ton tour, Ariel, donne à cette recrue Tes pas légers de jour, tes pas légers de nuit… Mais pour mon gout connu! qu'elle sente son fruit Et garde aux palais la race de sa rue. --Edgar Degas, in Henri Loyrette, Degas, 1991 Quelquefois le regret vous prend, Dans le plaisir, De s'être tant mis en avant Sans vrai desir, Mais jeunesse et temperament Vous font rester; On ne pourrait là! decemment Se derober. Et puis donc [?] le moyen de dire Avec amour? "Tu ne pourrais, belle, mieux venir A mon secours." Elle n'est coupable, enfin, Ma bonne amie, Si je l'ai tentée le matin, Tout endormie, Et si, m'embrassant fort étroit De tout son corps Elle m'a vu prêt à fair droit A ses transports. --Edgar Degas, composed in 1882, in Henri Loyrette, Degas, 1991 |
A difficulty is a light. An insurmontable difficulty is a sun. --Edgar Degas (cited by Antoine Terrasse, p. 68) |
Three Poems by Degas |
Translation in progress |