The famous French writer Jean Giono (1895-1970) is rooted in the countryside of Provence, and many of his works are set in Provence, and he has written a lot in his life, mainly including the novels "Mountain Gang" and "Light Cavalry on the Roof". He has been hailed as "one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century", "a pioneer of French ecological literature", "a great lyricist of the land", "Virgil who wrote prose poems". Provence: The Knight and lavender is a collection of essays, essays and travelogues written by Giono from the 1930s to the 1960s, in which he constructed a proven natural and imaginary space. Le Clézio, the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature winner and a famous contemporary French writer, called his Provence "the land of truth" and "the land of philosophy", an artistic world where people can "best know themselves".
Provence: The Knight and the Lavender, by Jean Giono, translator: Lu Xun, Edition: Haitian Publishing House, October 2021
Giono and Provence
Provence, located in southeastern France, is often a fascinating holiday destination with its purple flower fields and endless Blue Coast, filled with the romantic atmosphere of lavender and sea breeze. In Giono's pen, Provence is engraved with a distinctly personal imprint. Compared with the flat lower Provence on the left bank of the Rhône, this crowded Province, this tourist thinks he knows the Provence, Giono prefers the hills and rolling Upper Provence that is not occupied by modern civilization, he prefers the hidden country, loves the land "with annoying and loving tenderness", he loves the mountains, he hates the sea, he thinks that "the sea beats the dregs of human nature in the harbor, and the mountains test the pure mind", which is not lacking his worries about modern civilization. and the pursuit of ancient customs and the art of living.
Based in his native Manosque, Giono's work has a strong Provencal regional character. Just as Márquez has his "Macondo" and Mo Yan has his "high-density northeast township", they all draw nutrients from their homeland and build a literary paradise that is "both true and illusory", which can be said to be both local and cosmopolitan, they belong to the whole world and have influenced generations of readers. Olivier Baussan, who was deeply influenced by Giono in his childhood, followed his parents to provence since childhood, loved nature and poetry, indulged in Provence and its scent, and in 1976 founded the now world-famous skincare brand "L'Occitane". He said bluntly: "If I hadn't read Giono's work, I wouldn't have created L'Occitane".
For the French contemporary novelist Emmanuelle Lambert, there are two gionos, one a real person and one a writer, and the writer was born in the trenches, and from it was born a writer who tirelessly explored the problem of "evil". She believes that Giono's work has taught us that to find the light, we must first dig into the darkness. Looking back at Giono's life, due to family financial constraints in his early years, at the age of 16, he left school in Manosque and entered the bank as a clerk. During World War I, the 20-year-old Giono was sent to the front line to participate in the Battle of Verdun, retired from the army and returned to his homeland; during World War II, he suffered two short prison sentences for his anti-war views distorted by the media. The cruelty of war, the death of a close friend, a break with friends... These violence and darkness brought deep trauma to Gionor and were also reflected in his literary creation. The natural scenery written in his collection of essays "Provence" is not just a pastoral pastoral, but a reflection of the heart, a real humanity. As Lu Xun, the translator of this book, put it, Giono's Provence is both a "poetic space where subjectivity and objectivity are intertwined, and matter and imagination coexist", but also a "natural space to witness human tragedy".
Jean Gionno Provencal, academician of the Académie Goncourt, former president of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, is known as "one of the greatest French novelists of the 20th century", "Virgil who wrote prose poems", "poet of nature" and "pioneer of French ecological literature".
Small discussion on knowing all things: the power of the senses
Giono gave the Provence he wanted to write in the name of "small discussion of all things", which can be said to be the essence of his natural writing. He said, "Provence does not exist. People who like Provence either like everything in the world or they don't like anything. "What is involved here is a subjective way of knowing. He said that he should use the "ancient and enthusiastic, natural and loving" way of cognition to be close to all things, to understand the "noble places" of the countryside through "well-intentioned research and friendly exchanges", and believed that walking is the most effective research and communication tool, and that walkers are lucky, they have the ability to taste life with their bodies. Giono intends to use his senses and footsteps to feel the interlacing of the strange, to capture the subtle extremes, to perceive the truth of the earth. He attaches himself to the most subtle folds of the lives of plants, animals, men, and women, in order to recognize all things and construct his own artistic space, thus completing a true understanding and transcendence of reality. In Giono's view, this way of knowing makes people "still themselves, still poets", or "real people".
In the book, Giono writes: "Scientific knowledge alone will make people ignorant. In his view, scientific knowledge is too precise and cold, the world has a thousand faces, ten thousand tender feelings, when adapted to and understand them, we can know its full picture. His words are full of picture, full of metaphors, giving humanity to all things, as if Henri Michaud tends to "virtual" to "Tao" poetry, ethereal and ethereal, mysterious, it transcends the cold material scientific language, highlights the depth and true meaning of things, and explores an invisible truth, a kind of "human truth" as Le Clézio called it. Le Clézio, who is far away in the quiet countryside of France, prefaces the rebirth of this "country whisper" in a foreign land, allowing us to once again feel and examine Giono's Provence through the artistic vision of the master's criticism. In it, Le Clézio lamented: "What fascinates me about Giono – as in Faulkner – is the reality of human nature." In his work, there is the power of the senses, the rhythm of the seasons, the movement of the stars, the pulsation of blood, the dance of youth, and the instinct of death. All these secrets do not come from Heaven, but from the present. With the help of prose poetic, philosophical and timeless words, Giono takes us to the power of the senses, the power of the "virtual". This power is condensed in the fragrance of lavender, swaying in the purple ripples that pervade the heavens and the earth, it is the river "carries the emotional memory in the world", can instantly carve out the magical riverbed in our souls, it swims between heaven and earth, enough to "move the mountain above the plain", enough to purify all the souls. The mystery of all this comes from the "present", there is no past, there is no future, time "only passes in the machine part of the watch", and the meaning of life only shines at this moment.
Illustrations in the book.
Nature is Man: The Siddhartha Who Seeks Himself
Le Clézio believes that all of Giono's work is nature. His Provence is infinitely changeable, tender, and the unity of heaven and man, and the virtual reality. There are lavender churning flowers, which Gionor calls "the soul of Upper Provence", rainwater walking on green vegetation, intoxicating air, the song of flying insects, the dance of silver fish, the high chirping of herons, olive trees that "shine with the light of labor", grass and trees that "symbolize the cycle of life and death", patchwork of plain hills, miracles of dawn, gravel, deserts, storms, black swamps, viscous heat waves, cracked mud, "the cruelty of the sun", the tragedy of the earth... She is poetic, harsh and arid, lively and imposing. Exotic tones, hidden brilliance, the smell of souls in the clearings, the cyclical flow of life... Ultimately, it points to the truth of the earth.
With the help of natural ecological symbols, Through the examination of details, Giono searches for the "truth of human nature" and the true meaning of self. His nature is man, and literature is ultimately anthropology. In his view, "A mountain exists not only by its tallness, but also by weight, smell, movement, charm, language, emotion." A river is also a person, with its joys and sorrows, its love, strength, soul and sickness... "Mountains and rivers are human beings, stones have their lives, and the countryside has its "nobility" like human beings, and this land "is very sensitive, will perceive the most subtle friendship, the most hazy warmth and the most intimate movements." It will open like a peacock, it will grunt like a pigeon, straight to your deepest desire." He believes that "all the scenery is silent." We will only get what we deserve. His nature is both sentient beings and egos.
Listen to the strange language of lavender, listen to the story of a river, perceive all things with the keen senses of animals, and see all darkness and light in the interweaving of senses and thoughts, matter and imagination... In order to find oneself, Giono's "prose poems" can be said to be quite back to basics. It is reminiscent of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, who went through the world, tasted desires, and experienced sins, and finally found the "self" itself after thousands of sails. The boatman in the book recounts: "A very beautiful river. I love it more than anything. I listen to it and look into its eyes. I always learn a lot from it. A river can teach people many things. Siddhartha also stated in his first epiphany that "meaning and essence are by no means hidden behind things, they are in things, in all things," and he repented: "I have ignored the words in the book. I see the phenomenal world as illusory. As far as I can see, my lips and teeth taste nothing more than worthless contingencies. These coincide with Giono's ideas to some extent. When referring to the homeland "Manosque", he said that he was not talking about a city in the strict sense, but the sensory realization of "the whole scene of the mountains and river valleys, as well as the shape of the earth", his cognition of the homeland is not based on geographical knowledge and abstract concepts, not staying at the level of "words", but a profound interaction and observation, his exploration of the self, is a kind of renunciation after entering the world, is a seemingly static journey after being deeply influenced by the homeland, witnessing the nobility and violence of human nature, he and Siddhartha, with " Abandon passion and expectation, listen with a silent heart, a service and an open spirit, regardless of whether it is broken or unprepared", open every pore to perceive the simplest but still mysterious things in the life of the journey, to perceive the freedom and truth of "Provence".
The author | Chen Kexin
Editor | Zhang Jin
Proofreading | Xue Jingning