Stéphane Mallarmé

He wrote, “It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”

Today is the birthday of French poet Stéphane Mallarmé (books by this author), born in Paris (1842). He supported himself — and, once he married, his wife and family — by working as a schoolteacher, though he didn’t enjoy the work. He took on side jobs like writing and translating school textbooks, and editing a magazine, to supplement his income. He found reality lacking, and longed for a way to escape; this desire often found its way into his poetry. He began publishing his poems in magazines in 1862, when he was 20 years old. He also hosted salons at his home, where writers met to discuss literature and philosophy. Regular attendees included W.B. Yeats, Rainer Maria Rilke, Paul Verlaine, and Paul Valéry.

He began to develop a sort of artistic philosophy about a dimension beyond the limits of reality, where ideal versions of flawed “real” things reside. He believed that it was the province of poets to perceive and translate these ideal essences for readers, to attempt to depict that which can’t be depicted. His poems are particularly hard to translate, both because he plays with double meanings, and because he plays with the sound of the French language. When his poems are read aloud, the effect is almost musical, and his work inspired composers like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

-Writer's Almanac