"Naïs et Chloé" Poème saphique autographe inédit signé d'Alexandre Dumas

DUMAS Alexandre
Naïs et Chloé. Unpublished handwritten sapphic poem signed by Alexandre Dumas
N. d. (c. 1860), 20,6 x 27,6 cm, one folded leaf
Autograph manuscript poem signed by Alexandre Dumas bearing the title “Naïs et Chloé,” 84 verses in black ink on a blue folded leaf of paper. A few tiny tears without damage to the text, invariably produced when a leaf of paper is folded.
A very rare manuscript of a long unpublished poem depicting the love of Naïs and Chloé, the writing of which is motivated by the admiration and tribute paid by Alexandre Dumas to one of the greatest figures of ancient poetry, Sappho.
A prolific novelist, Dumas rarely tried his hand at poetry; “Naïs et Chloé,” by its length, constitutes a hapax in the literary production of this writer. The text remains unpublished to this day and is here enhanced by the elegant calligraphy of its author. The poem is made up of 21 quatrains, among which stands a remarkable insertion of the most famous verse by Sappho, “to the beloved woman,” the title of which is preserved in the very body of the text. This embedding is part of the verve with which
Dumas defends the poetic and evocative force of the writing of Sappho, whom he elevates to the rank of the “star of the world” of Poetry:
“Il est au sein des mers s'appuyant à l'Asie
Entre l'heureuse Smyrne et la sombre Lemnos
Une île aux bois fleuris chers à la Poésie
A qui Venus donna le doux nom de Lesbos.
Quand du chantre divin la voix fut étouffée
Que du nom d'Euridice elle eut frappé l'écho
Le flot roula tête et la lyre d'Orphée
Sur la rive où plus tard devait naître Sapho
Sapho naquit la lyre en ses mains fut remise
Les sons qu'elle en tira jusqu'à nous sont venus.”
Translated with conscientious care by the author, the poem borrowed from Sappho in which that most famous verse emerges (“this one, I say, is equal to the gods”), is found in several places in Dumas' work, particularly in the chapter entitled “les vers saphiques” of San Felice and in a collection of articles dedicated to the great female figures, where she sits alongside Joan of Arc and Margaret of Anjou. For Dumas, it is a matter of remaining faithful to the written verses and rendering their sensuality, often blurred by previous translators: “The translations of these two poets […] often appear to lack not only ancient color but are inadequate in their lesbian ardor” (Les étoiles du monde, Galerie historique des femmes les plus célèbres de tous les temps et de tous les pays). Above and beyond this translation, Dumas is imbued with the lyricism of Sappho without losing his own romantic vein, and he paints the sapphic love of Naïs and Chloé in an erotic light:
“Oh seule palpitante, échevelée et nue
Une main sur ma gorge et l'autre... Oh ma Naïs
Serre moi dans tes bras et sois la bien venue
Car à force d'amour... tiens... tiens je te trahis
Et l'on n'entendit plus alors dans la nuit sombre
Que le bruit des baisers répétés par l'écho
Car Nais et Cloé se taisaient et dans l'ombre
Clinias s'enfuyait en maudissant Sapho.”
The poem testifies to the continuous interest that the authors of the late 19th century showed toward sapphism and to the personage of the reader-voyeur, here embodied by Cleinias, whose most famous occurrence remains Zola's Nana.
Exceptional and long autograph sapphic poem by Alexandre Dumas.
$ 10 000