MISTRAL, Frédéric (1830-1914)

MISTRAL, Frédéric (1830-1914)

Autograph manuscript signed « F. Mistral »
N.p.n.d, 2 p. petit in-8° on laid paper, in french
Important tear on fold, slight browning

A very nice unpublished text, slightly tinged with eroticism and enriched with a few verses from his collection Lis Óulivado

« en Arles, au jour où Arles célébra dans saint Trophime¹ la commémoration de Constantin, une reine apparut : Magali des matines. La chevelure ceinte du diadème arlésien, la chapelle des seins entr’ouverte au soleil, elle alla dans la foule, y répandant l’admiration. elle était la beauté humaine, qui s’harmonise aux monuments. elle était la beauté romaine, impériale et dominante. la fameuse Fausta², l’épouse de Constantin, n’était pas plus superbe. mais Fausta fut une coquine ; et magali est noble et digne et généreuse autant que belle. en arles ce jour-là, aucune vision de femme ne fut grande comme la sienne -et aucune arlésienne ne personnifia la race comme notre magali !

mai, o magali [mais, ô Magali,]
gènto magali, [douce Magali,]
douço magali, [Magali allègre]
es tu que m’as fa trefouli [c’est toi qui m’as fait tressaillir]

F. Mistral »

Unknown to date, is this manuscript a tribute to a particularly attractive Arlesian? Written in French, one might think that the recipient did not master the Occitan language. Or is it an exercise in the poet’s style? This hypothesis is not unlikely. Mistral evokes “Magali” in his prose, the idol of his poem Tremount de luno [Coucher de lunes] from which he extracts the last four lines here.

Published in 1912, Lis Óulivado is the last great collection of lyrical poems by Frédéric Mistral. It collects poems written up to 1907.

[1] The Saint-Trophime Cathedral of Arles is a Romanesque church in the city of Arles built in the twelfth century and located on the Place de la République. It is considered one of the most important buildings in the Provençal Romanesque domain.
[2] Fausta Flavia Maxima (c. 289-326) was the daughter of Emperor Maximian Hercules and Eutropia. Married to Emperor Constantine I in 307, she bore him three sons, future emperors, and three daughters. In 324, she received the supreme title of Augusta. The circumstances of his death two years later, documented by incomplete or biased sources, remain forever uncertain.