Émile Nelligan (1879-1941) was a Canadian poet who wrote in the French language.
Nelligan was born in Montreal to an Irish father and a French-Canadian mother. A follower of Symbolism, his poetry is deeply influenced by Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Georges Rodenbach, Maurice Rollinat, and Edgar Allan Poe. A precocious talent like Arthur Rimbaud, his first poems were published in Montreal when he was 16 years old.
In 1899 Nelligan suffered a major psychotic breakdown from which he never recovered. In 1904, his collected poems were published to great acclaim in Canada, an acclaim he never knew. He was one of the greatest French language poets produced by Canada, and several schools and libraries there are named after him.
C'était un grand Vaisseau taillé dans l'or massif:
Mais il vint une nuit frapper le grand écueil
Ce fut un Vaisseau d'Or, dont les flancs diaphanes
Que reste-t-il de lui dans la tempête brève?
Collection of Nelligan's poetry (site is in French): http://poesie.webnet.fr/auteurs/nelligan.htmlQuotation: Le Vaisseau d'Or
Ses mâts touchaient l'azur, sur des mers inconnues;
La Cyprine d'amour, cheveux épars, chairs nues,
S'étalait à sa proue, au soleil excessif.
Dans l'Océan trompeur où chantait la Sirène,
Et le naufrage horrible inclina sa carène
Aux profondeurs du Gouffre, immuable cercueil.
Révélaient des trésors que les marins profanes,
Dégoùt, Haine et Névrose, entre eux ont disputés.
Qu'est devenu mon coeur, navire déserté?
Hélas! Il a sombré dans l'abîme du Rêve!External link:
