Jules Laforgue

A French poet from the late 19th century. Born on August 16th in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay in South America. He moved to France at the age of six and spent his childhood in Tarbes. In 1876, he moved to Paris with his family who had returned from Uruguay, but the death of his mother the following spring left a deep scar on his heart. Having failed the baccalauréat (university entrance exam), he was forced to give up on continuing his education, and while working as secretary to the art dealer Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905), he also frequented literary cafes and interacted with young poets. Through an introduction by Bourget, he served as tutor to Empress Augusta in Germany for five years from 1881. During this time, he published two collections of poems, Lamentations (1885) and The Imitation of the Virgin Moon (1886), both filled with exquisite irony, and also attracted attention with his poetry and prose works, which he published in La Bogue, a magazine edited by his friend Gustave Kahn (1859-1936), from 1886. In 1886, he returned to his beloved Paris with his English wife, but he contracted tuberculosis and died on August 20, 1887, at the young age of 27.

His posthumous works include "Legendary Moral Plays" (1887), a collection of stories that imbued the "old canvas" of myths and legends with a "new spirit," and "The Last Poems" (1890), which occupies an important position in the history of the establishment of free verse. His works, which sing of the melancholy of modern times through unconventional rhythm and a wide variety of wordplay, were highly praised in the United States and Britain more than in his own country until very recently, and were read by such poets as the American poet E. W. L. Pound and the British poet T. S. Eliot, as well as Japanese poets such as Mitomi Kuchiha, Nakahara Chuya, and Kajii Motojiro.

[Mori Shigetaro]

"Excerpts from Laforgue, translated by Kenichi Yoshida (1977, Ozawa Shoten)" ▽ "Complete Works of Laforgue, translated by Masatoshi Hirota, 3 volumes (1981, Sodosha)" ▽ "Portrait of Laforgue, written by Masatoshi Hirota (1984, JCA Publishing)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

フランス19世紀末の詩人。8月16日、南米ウルグアイの首都モンテビデオに生まれた。6歳のときフランスへ渡り、少年時代をタルブで送る。1876年、ウルグアイから帰郷の家族とともにパリに転居、翌春の母の死は彼の心に深い傷痕(きずあと)を残した。バカロレア（大学入学資格試験）に失敗して、進学を断念せざるを得ず画商エフリュシCharles Ephrussi（1849―1905）の秘書を務めるかたわら、文学カフェーにも出入りして、若い詩人たちと交わった。ブールジェの紹介で、1881年から5年間、ドイツにおいて皇后アウグスタの侍講(じこう)を務める。その間、精妙な反語精神に満ちた詩集『なげきうた』（1885）、『聖母なる月のまねび』（1886）を相次いで刊行、また1886年からは、友人カーンGustave Kahn（1859―1936）の主宰する雑誌『ラ・ボーグ』に詩や散文を発表して注目を集めた。1886年、イギリス人の妻を伴いあこがれのパリへ戻ったが、結核に冒され、1887年8月20日、27歳の若さで世を去った。

　遺稿として、神話・伝説の「古いカンバス」に「新しい魂」を盛った小説集『伝説的教訓劇』（1887）、自由詩の成立史上重要な位置を占める『最後の詩』（1890）などが残された。近代の悲愁を破格の韻律に託し、多彩な言語遊戯を駆使しながら歌い上げた彼の作品は、ごく最近まで、本国でよりむしろ英米で高く評価され、アメリカの詩人E・W・L・パウンドやイギリスの詩人T・S・エリオット、また日本でも、三富朽葉(みとみくちは)、中原中也(ちゅうや)、梶井基次郎(かじいもとじろう)などがこれを愛読した。

［森茂太郎］

『吉田健一訳『ラフォルグ抄』（1977・小沢書店）』▽『広田正敏訳『ラフォルグ全集』全3巻（1981・創土社）』▽『広田正敏著『ラフォルグの肖像』（1984・JCA出版）』

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