Ardour

By Nicole Brossard

something like wait for me
in the braille of scars
tonight can i suggest a little punctuation
circle half-moon vertical line of astonishment
a pause that transforms
light and breath 
into language and threshold of fire

Even as vowels tremble in danger and worldly destruction repeats itself on the horizon, Ardour reminds us that the silence pulsing within us is also a language of connection. In these poems, intimacy with the other is another astonishment—a pleasant gasp, a "pause that transforms light and breath into language and threshold of fire." Since her first book appeared fifty years ago, Nicole Brossard has left us breathless, expanding our notion of poetry and its possibilities.

'[Nicole Brossard] is a wholly singular writer, part of a larger movement of Quebec Women's writing, part of feminist writing,avant-garde writing, part of lesbian writing, but wholly, unequivocally, herself.' – Sina Queyras

• Language: English
• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Release date: Oct 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781770564206

Nicole Brossard

Two-time Governor General’s Award winner for her poetry, Nicole Brossard has published more than thirty books of poetry, fiction, and essays since 1965. She has co-founded and co-directed the literary magazine La Barre du Jour (1965-1975), co-directed the film Some American Feminists (1976), and co-edited the acclaimed Anthologie de la poésie des femmes au Québec (1991 and 2003). Her work has been widely translated into English and Spanish and is also available in many other languages. Nicole has won numerous awards, including winning the Trois-Rivières International Poetry Festival Grand Prix Québecor in 1989 and 1999, the Prix Athanase-David in 1991, and the the first Violet Prize awarded by the Blue Metropolis Festival in 2018. One of her novels, Mauve Desert, has been presented as a multidisciplinary creation in 2018 and is slated for an opera adaptation in 2020-21. She is an officer of the Order of Canada, chevalière of the National Order of Quebec, and a member of l’Académie des lettres du Québec. Nicole currently lives in Montreal.

Book preview

English translation copyright © Angela Carr, 2015

Original text © Nicole Brossard, 2008

First English edition. Originally published in French as Ardeur in 2008 as a co-edition by Éditions Phi and Écrits des Forges.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing, an initiative of the Roadmap for Canada’s Official Languages 2013–2018: Education, Immigration, Communities, for our translation activities. Published with the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. Coach House Books also acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Brossard, Nicole, 1943-

[Ardeur. English]

Ardour / Nicole Brossard ; Angela Carr, translator.

Translation of: Ardeur.

Poems.

ISBN 978-1-55245-322-3 (paperback).

I. Carr, Angela, 1976-, translator II. Title. III. Title: Ardeur. English.

PS8503.R7A7613 2015   C841'.54   C2015-905046-4

Ardour is available as an ebook: ISBN 978 1 77056 420 6

Reviews for Ardour

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those relatively short poetry books which is worth ten times its weight or word count. Brossard's words are both elegant and powerful, as gorgeous as they are thick with meaning. Among other snippets, from "Napes":"in all of us there's a silencethat gallops on nights of sorrow-- to be this body in the breakneck speed of the presentbrushing againstgrief when touchingthe other's gestures and their petalsof memory and shimmeringand before the 'bad infinity'we embrace without hesitationto impressthe animal leapan impassive glancein our chests"Simply, there's a beauty to this book, in its complete form, that I can't quite put into words. I'll read it again, and again, and pass it along to other poets if I can.Absolutely recommended.