Marcela Delpastre (sometimes Marcèla, pronounced [marˈsɛla delˈpastre])
was an Occitan- and French-language author from Limousin. She was born
on February 2, 1925 and died on February 6, 1998. She is known in
non-Occitan-speaking France as Marcelle Delpastre.
1
Biography 1.1
Early years
1.2
Local literary recognition
1.3 Occitania-wide acclaim
2 Extracts
3 Selected bibliography
Marcela Delpastre was born on February 2, 1925 in Germont, near the
commune of Chamberet in the département of Corrèze. The daughter,
granddaughter and great-granddaughter of local farmers, she grew up in
the heart of Limousin’s countryside civilization. At home, she would
hear and learn two languages: Occitan and French. She went to primary
school in Surdoux and Saint-Léonard in Haute-Vienne and then to
secondary school in Brive where she took a baccalauréat in philosophy
and literature. She later entered the college of decorative arts of
Limoges where she developed a strong liking for human shapes (faces and
feminine curves) and beauty in general.
In 1945, she
returned to the family farm in Germont where she spent the rest of her
life working the land, something she did "because one has to earn their
daily bread"). In the meantime, whether milking the cows or driving a
tractor, she’d still think of apt rhymes for the poems she wrote.
Poetry accompanied her all day long and she’d always carry a wee jotter
and a pen in her pocket. When inspiration came, when the words were
there, fine and ready, Marcela took a break and immediately put them
down on paper. Indeed, most of her masterpieces probably sprang from a
bundle of straw in a stable or in the middle of a field.
From the end of the
1940s to the early years of the following decade, as the exercise books
in which she wrote her poems and thoughts were beginning to heap up,
Marcela Delpastre sent some of her works to literary journals and arts
reviews. She was greatly encouraged by the correspondence she engaged
in. As her texts got published, Marcela grew increasingly famous among
the well-read people of Limousin.
Local literary
recognition |
In the 1960s, Marcela Delpastre was the helpless witness of the death
of her native village of Germont and the painful decline of the
millennial farming civilization of Limousin. The tractors replaced the
oxen, the machines did the hands and television the evening
gatherings... With all of her heart, Marcela now immersed herself into
the tales, the legends and the traditions of her home país and met with
Robert Joudoux, from the Lemouzi magazine, and Jean Mouzat, another
Occitan author.
Marcela Delpastre’s
first work in lenga d’òc was called
La Lenga que tant me platz
(The Language I Love So):
"E si m’aproisme a la senta
taula, voldriá na òstia de pan de blat — per comuniar tot per lo còp
emb lo bon Dieu e emb la tèrra — ensemble bèlament semblats, coma
l’alen a la saba daus blats, — dins la lenga que tant me platz."
"And
should I get near the holy table, I’d ask for a host of wheat bread —
to receive communion both from Our Lord and the earth — the two of them
so beautifully alike, as the wind is the sap of corn, — in the language
I love so."
From then on,
Marcela decided to write in Limousin, both the tongue and the place,
and about Limousin. In the aforementioned magazine were subsequently
published a couple of poems, among which
Lo Rossinhòl e l’eglantina
(The Nightingale & the Wild Rose) and
Lo Chamin de tèrra
(The Dirt Track). For an easier writing, she also learned the
normalized Occitan spelling.
In the mid-1960s,
Marcela began collecting and re-inventing traditional tales from her
native Limousin. The first book was published in 1970 and its title
was:
Los Contes dau
Puèg Gerjant (The Tales of Mount Gerjant). At the same
time, she did the work of an ethnologist and wrote, in French,
Le Tombeau des ancêtres
(The Tomb of Our Ancestors) about the customs and beliefs surrounding
local religious festivals and cults. In 1968,
La Vinha dins l’òrt
(The Vine in the Garden) was released: this poem won an award at the
Jaufre Rudel competition. Its French version,
La Vigne dans le jardin
was adapted for the stage by the Radio-Limoges drama company. They
adapted more texts by Marcela Delpastre later in the decade, among
which featured
L’Homme
éclaté (The Exploded Man) and
La Marche à l’étoile
(Walking to the Star). Marcela kept on writing and published other
poems in several reviews, such as Lemouzi, Traces, Poésie 1, Vent
Terral and Òc.
In 1974,
Saumes pagans
(Pagan Psalms) appeared in the collection called
Messatges de l’IEO.
It’s with these poems that Marcela Delpastre truly gained recognition
from the whole Occitan literary world. In
Le Bourgeois et le paysan
(The Bourgeois & the Farmer) went another step farther in
portraying the customs, beliefs and oral tradition of Limousin, this
time around the theme of fire. Later, in her
Bestiari lemosin
(The Limousin Bestiary), she focused on wild animals and cattle and
mixed reality with mythology. By the end of the 1970s Marcela also met
two very important men for her career: one is Micheu Chapduelh and the
other is Jan dau Melhau. She regularly featured in their review, Lo
Leberaubre, and grew popular beyond the circle of her readers by giving
her opinion in articles and interviews in the local Limousin press
(Limousin Magazine, La Montagne, L’Écho, Le Populaire...), but most of
all, among Occitan activists thanks to magazines like Òc, Occitans and
especially Connaissance des Pays d’Òc, with Ives Roqueta’s help.
In the last years of
her life, Marcela Delpastre (and her friend Jan dau Melhau) spent her
time dusting off hundreds of unpublished texts. Suffering from Charcot
disease, she died in her bed on February 6, 1998 in her Germont farm,
where she was born, where she’d always stayed and worked. Jan dau
Melhau, her sole legatee, has since released more of her writings for
the Lo Chamin de Sent-Jaume publishing house. The poet’s works are kept
at Limoges’s City Library.
A poet, a
story-teller, an author and an ethnologist, Marcela Delpastre is now
considered one of the ten most important writers of the XXth century,
alongside the likes of Joan Bodon, Bernat Manciet, Renat Nelli and Max
Roqueta. The message of this woman, who never left her home land of
Limousin, is one of universal significance, one that addresses
everybody, and this is probably what makes her words so strong and
beautiful.
L'Òrt
jos la luna | The
Garden Under the Moon |
Res
que me manque, res.
Lo temps de nàisser, de morir, Lo temps de me
virar. Lo temps de res.
D’èsser quela chalor. Queu sang. Quela
bufada.
Lo temps d’èsser ieu-mesme — Res. Na polsada de
l’èsser.
| There is nothing I lack, nothing. The
time to be born, to die, The time to turn around. The
time for nothing.
To be that heat. That blood. That
breathing.
The time to be myself — Nothing.
The breath of being.
|
La
Broa dau chamin | Along
the Path
|
Onte se'n van, quilhs que
se'n van?
Lo paubre ausèu, lo chen, la femna —
E tu qui parlas tant, onte aniràs?
Mas se'n van pas!
Demòran qui, que bujan pas, Remuèdan pas, ni pè ni
sola.
E lo temps que se'n vai —
Lo temps qu'a pas besonh de ilhs —
Lo temps qu'espèra pas —
Lo temps se'n vai d’aicí a deman Mai tòrna pas
virar.
E tu parièr lai entraràs, Per la broa tranquilla
dau chamin.
E tu segur lai entraràs, Dins lo silenci priond de
l'eternèla
eternitat.
|
Where do they go, those who leave?
The poor bird, the dog, the woman —
And you who speaks so much, where will you go? They're
not leaving at all! They remain here, not moving, Not
stirring, neither foot nor sole.
And the time that elapses —
The time that doesn't need them —
The time that doesn't wait —
The time that leaves from here to the morrow And
then never comes back.
And you too will walk in there, Along the quiet
path.
And you sure will walk in there, In the deep
silence of eternal eternity.
|
La
Prima | The
Springtime |
Me desvelhe.
Es be jorn.
Coma un qui se desvelha
E qui la nuèch n’a pas barrat sos uèlhs,
Ai be trauchat l’ivèrn Sens veire nuèch ni nèvia
E sens sentir lo vent.
Me desvelhe.
Veiquí.
De flors mai de fuèlhas Se’s perfumada l’auba,
E la prima chanta lo vent.
M’a fach durmir ni nuèch ni nèvia,
E lo mes mòrt me ten lo sang:
Que me son las fuèlhas Mai las flors!
E lo vent de prima Ni lo solelh de l’auba.
Las pèiras daus chamins Que lo giau las trabalha,
E la tèrra daus puègs, Sentan dins las priondors Lo
levam de la grana
E las dents de las raiç.
Mas ieu, que me desvelha?
E sabe-ieu qu’es jorn!
E sabe-ieu si l’auba raia, E que me vòl
l’amor! | I'm waking up.
It's well into the day.
Like one who's waking up
And whose eyes the night hasn't shut,
I've been living through the winter Without seeing
night nor snow,
Without feeling the wind.
I'm waking up.
That's it.
With flowers and leaves The morning has perfumed
itself,
And springtime sings of the wind.
Neither night nor snow have made me sleep,
And the dead month is freezing my blood:
What are flowers And leaves to me!
Or the springtime wind Or even the morning sun.
The pebbles on the path That frost is working on,
And the earth of the hills,
Feel deep inside The leaven of the seed
And the teeth of the roots.
But me, what is waking me?
Do I even know it's day yet!
Do I even know if the morning's shining, And what
loves wants from me! |
- 1964 : La lenga que tant me platz (Lemouzi, Tulle)
- 1965 : Lo Rossinhòu e l’eglantina (Lemouzi)
- 1967 : La Vinha dins l’òrt (Escòla Jaufre Rudel)
- 1968 : Lo Chamin de tèrra (Lemouzi)
- 1970 : Los Contes dau puèg Gerjant (Lemouzi)
- 1974 : Saumes pagans (IEO-Novelum)
- 1996 : Las Vias priondas de la memòria (L’Ostal del Libre, Aurillac)
- 1997 : Paraulas per questa tèrra (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 1997 : Cinq heures du soir & Proses pour l’après-midi (Payot, Paris)
- 1998 : Le Jeu de patience (Payot, Paris)
- 1998 : Les Chemins creux (Presses de la Cité)
- 1999 : Saumes pagans (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 1999 : Poèmes dramatiques (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2000 : Le Bourgeois et le paysan, les contes du feu (Payot, Paris)
- 2000 : Poésie modale (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2001 : Le Testament de l’eau douce (Fédérop, Gardonne)
- 2001 : Les Petits recueils (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2001 : D’una lenga l’autra (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2001 : Ballades (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2002 : Le Chasseur d’ombres: et autres psaumes (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2002 : L’Araignée et la rose: et autres psaumes (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2003 : Bestiari lemosin (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2004 : Mémoires (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)
- 2005 : Des trois passages en Limousin (Lo Chamin de Sent Jaume, Meuzac)