The poetry of Charles P???guy (1873- 1914) emerges from a world deeply embedded in supernatural realities and the hidden activities of grace. Nevertheless, it lacks any trace of the "other-worldliness" that frequently characterizes religious poetry. For, though he enters unabashedly into the mysteries of providence and the longings of God's own heart, he proceeds by means of the most ordinary experiences of human life, yielding insights that are all the more striking for having been drawn from familiar images. Speaking ...
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The poetry of Charles P???guy (1873- 1914) emerges from a world deeply embedded in supernatural realities and the hidden activities of grace. Nevertheless, it lacks any trace of the "other-worldliness" that frequently characterizes religious poetry. For, though he enters unabashedly into the mysteries of providence and the longings of God's own heart, he proceeds by means of the most ordinary experiences of human life, yielding insights that are all the more striking for having been drawn from familiar images. Speaking thus with the "voice of the people," his universal appeal has made him one of France's best-loved poets; as a true "adventurer of the spirit," P???guy has also caused a gentle but unmistakable shift in twentieth-century Catholic thought, leaving a legacy that continues in such writers as Bernanos, Marcel, Guardini, de Lubac, and Balthasar. In The Portal of the Mystery of Hope , P???guy offers a comprehensive theology ordered around the often-neglected second theological virtue, incarnated in his image of the "little girl Hope." Her playful confidence and unshakeable joy -- even within the dark mystery of human suffering -- are described in the simple language and light humor that characterize P???guy's unconventional style, and are carried in the prayerful rhythm of the ancient litanies. This first ever critical edition of P???guy's poetry to appear in English contains a preface, biographical chronology, bibliography, and a host of notes that situate the poem in the context of P???guy's life.
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Add this copy of The Portal of the Mystery of Hope (Continuum Impacts) to cart. $83.70, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Continuum.
Supernatural hope is one thing that this world desperately needs. Few writers who can teach us true hope better than the French poet, Charles Péguy. In his dramatic poem, The Portal of the Mystery of Hope, Péguy has us listen in as Madame Gervaise, a 25-year-old Franciscan nun, teaches the young Joan of Arc her catechism beneath one of the great doorways of a cathedral. In fact, Madame Gervaise's monologue is the whole poem, the mode of God's speaking to the young Joan of Arc and calling her to sainthood, and a way that God would speak to us through the poet and his drama.
And how does God speak? In theological definitions? In the categories of philosophy? If this were so, Joan could have neatly deflected the attacks of the inquisitorial court. No, for Péguy, God speaks from the heart with the simplicity of a peasant father, in language that is permeated with the Psalms and the common language of the Gospels. He repeats himself often, not because he is a doddering old man, or because he is lecturing us, but because he is revealing still further dimensions to mysteries that we may regard as trite. And though the words repeat, the meanings modulate and take on nuances previously inconceivable. In Péguy, God repeats himself because he would have us appreciate the depths of his creation, particularly hope:
What surprises me, says God, is hope. And I can't get over it. This little hope who seems like nothing at all. This little girl hope. Immortal. (7)
The translator, David Louis Schindler, Jr., has done very well in turning the French idiom of Péguy into English idiom. The lover of poetry will find this book very accessible, and the student of poetry will find avenues for further exploration. This poem was translated from the French critical edition, and offers full biographic notes and a bibliography on Péguy at the end. In addition, a preface by Jean Bastaire, an excerpt by Balthasar on Péguy, appreciations of Péguy's contemporaries, a publisher's note and a translator's note offer further context for the poem. For my part, I recommend that the poem be read first, for the poet still does a marvelous job of making himself clear to the reader. This work has waited eighty-five years to be translated into English, let us wish that its secret of renewal finds its way into American hearts.
