Stéphane Mallarmé citations

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“[…] le monde est fait pour aboutir à un beau livre.”

“La chair est triste, hélas! et j'ai lu tous les livres.”

“Aboli bibelot d'inanité sonore […]”

“[…] le tout sans nouveauté qu’un espacement de la lecture.”

“L'oeuvre pure implique la disparition élocutoire du poëte, qui cède l'initiative aux mots.”

“Ce n'est pas avec des idées qu'on fait des vers, c'est avec des mots.”

“L'acte poétique consiste à voir soudain qu'une idée se fractionne en un nombre de motifs égaux par valeur et à les grouper; ils riment.”

“J'invente une langue qui doit nécessairement jaillir d'une poétique très nouvelle, que je pourrais définir en ces deux mots: Peindre, non la chose, mais l'effet qu'elle produit.”

“I, proud of my rumour, for long I will talk
Of goddesses; and by picturings idolatrous,
From their shades unloose yet more of their girdles:
So when of grapes the clearness I've sucked,
To banish regret by my ruse disavowed,
Laughing, I lift the empty bunch to the sky,
Blowing into its luminous skins and athirst
To be drunk, till the evening I keep looking through.
Oh nymphs, we diverse MEMORIES refill.”

“How, save through obscure
Terrors, imagine more implacable still
And as a suppliant the god who some day will
Receive the gift of your grace! and for whom,
Devoured by anguish, do you keep the unknown
Splendor and mystery of your being?”

“My breast, though proofless, still attests a bite
Mysterious, due to some august tooth;
But enough! for confidant such mystery chose
The great double reed which one plays 'neath the blue.”

“Degas was discussing poetry with Mallarmé; "It isn't ideas I'm short of… I've got too many", said Degas. "But Degas," replied Mallarmé, "you can't make a poem with ideas. … You make it with words.”

“The flesh is sorrowful, alas! And I've read all the books.”