French Provençal writer and lexicographer (1830–1914)
You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding articles in Polish and French. (December 2021)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Polish Wikipedia article at [[:pl:Frédéric Mistral]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|pl|Frédéric Mistral}} to the talk page.
Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (French:[mistʁal]; Occitan: Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral, 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was an Occitan writer and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist". Mistral was a founding member of the Félibrige and member of the Académie de Marseille.
His name in his native language was Frederi Mistral (Mistrau) according to the Mistralian orthography, or Frederic Mistral (or Mistrau) according to the classical orthography.
Mistral's fame was owing in part to Alphonse de Lamartine who sang his praises in the 40th edition of his periodical Cours familier de littérature, following the publication of Mistral's long poem Mirèio. Alphonse Daudet, with whom he maintained a long friendship, eulogized him in "Poet Mistral", one of the stories in his collection Letters from My Windmill (Lettres de mon moulin).
Mistral was born in Maillane in the Bouches-du-Rhônedepartment in Southern France.[1] His parents were wealthy landed farmers.[1] His father, François Mistral, was from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.[1] His mother was Adelaide Poulinet. As early as 1471, his paternal ancestor, Mermet Mistral, lived in Maillane.[1] By 1588, the Mistral family lived in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.[1]
Mistral was given the Provençal name "Frederi" in memory "of a poor small fellow who, at the time when my parents were courting, sweetly ran their errands of love, and who died shortly afterward of sunstroke."[2] Mistral did not begin school until he was about nine years old, and quickly began to play truant, leading his parents to send him to a boarding school in Saint-Michel-de-Frigolet, run by a Monsieur Donnat.
After receiving his bachelor's degree in Nîmes, Mistral studied law in Aix-en-Provence from 1848 to 1851. He became a champion for the independence of Provence, and in particular for restoring the "first literary language of civilized Europe"—Provençal. He had studied the history of Provence during his time in Aix-en-Provence. Emancipated by his father, Mistral resolved: "to raise, revive in Provence the feeling of race ...; to move this rebirth by the restoration of the natural and historical language of the country ...; to restore the fashion to Provence by the breath and flame of divine poetry". For Mistral, the word race designates "people linked by language, rooted in a country and in a story".
For his lifelong efforts in restoring the language of Provence, Frédéric Mistral was one of the recipients of the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature after having been nominated by two professors from the Swedish Uppsala University.[3][4] The other winner that year, José Echegaray, was honored for his Spanish dramas. They shared the prize money equally.[5] Mistral devoted his half to the creation of the Museum at Arles, known locally as "Museon Arlaten". The museum is considered to be the most important collection of Provençal folk art, displaying furniture, costumes, ceramics, tools and farming implements. In addition, Mistral was awarded the Légion d'honneur. This was a most unusual occurrence since it is usually only awarded for notable achievement on a national level, whereas Mistral was uniquely Provençal in his work and achievement.
In 1876, Mistral married a Burgundian woman, Marie-Louise Rivière (1857–1943) in Dijon Cathedral(Cathédrale Saint-Bénigne de Dijon). They had no children. Mistral died on 25 March 1914 in Maillane, the same village where he was born.
Félibrige
Plaque on the rue Louis Pasteur in Avignon where Joseph Roumanille taught such brilliant future poets as Anselme Matthieu and Frédéric Mistral
Mistral joined forces with one of his teachers, Joseph Roumanille, and five other Provençal poets and on 21 May 1854, they founded Félibrige, a literary and cultural association, which made it possible to promote the Occitan language. Placed under the patronage of Saint Estelle, the movement also welcomed Catalan poets from Spain, driven out by Isabelle II.
The seven founders of the organization were (to use their Provençal names): Jóusè Roumaniho, Frederi Mistral, Teodor Aubanel, Ansèume Matiéu, Jan Brunet, Anfos Tavan and Paul Giera. Félibrige exists to this day, one of the few remaining cultural organizations in 32 departments of the "Langue d'Oc".
Mistral strove to rehabilitate the language of Provence, while carrying it to the highest summits of epic poetry. He redefined the language in its purest form by creating a dictionary and transcribing the songs of the troubadours, who spoke the language in its original form.
Lexicography: Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige
Mistral is the author of Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (1878–1886), which to date remains the most comprehensive dictionary of the Occitan language, and one of the most reliable, thanks to the precision of its definitions. It is a bilingual dictionary, Occitan-French, in two large volumes, with all of the dialects of oc, including Provençal. Mistral owes to François Vidal the work of typesetting and revising that dictionary.
Mirèio–Mireille
Mistral during his career.
Mistral's most important work is Mirèio (Mireille), published in 1859, after eight years of effort. Mirèio, a long poem in Provençal consisting of twelve songs, tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social backgrounds. The name Mireille (Mirèio in Provence) is a doublet of the word meraviho which means wonder.
Mistral used the occasion not only to promote his language but also to share the culture of an area. Among other tales, he tells of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, where according to legend the dragon Tarasque was driven out, and of the famous and ancient Venus of Arles. He prefaced the poem with a short notice about Provençal pronunciation.
The poem tells how Mireille's parents wish her to marry a Provençal landowner, but she falls in love with a poor basket maker named Vincent, who loves her as well. After rejecting three rich suitors, a desperate Mireille, driven by the refusal of her parents to let her marry Vincent, runs off to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to pray to the patrons of Provence to change her parents' minds. Having forgotten to bring a hat, she falls victim to the heat, dying in Vincent's arms under the gaze of her parents.
To you, I dedicate Mireille: It is my heart and my soul; It is the flower of my years; It is bunch of grapes from La Crau, leaves and all, a peasant's offering."
Lamartine wrote enthusiastically: "I will tell you good news today! A great epic poet is born ... A true Homeric poet in our time; ... Yes, your epic poem is a masterpiece; ... the perfume of your book will not evaporate in a thousand years."
Mirèio was translated into some fifteen European languages, including into French by Mistral himself. In 1863, Charles Gounod made it into an opera, Mireille.
Occitan literature is a body of texts written in Occitan, mostly in the south of France. It was the first literature in a Romance language and inspired the rise of vernacular literature throughout medieval Europe. Occitan literature's Golden Age was in the 12th century, when a rich and complex body of lyrical poetry was produced by troubadours writing in Old Occitan, which still survives to this day. Although Catalan is considered by some a variety of Occitan, this article will not deal with Catalan literature, which started diverging from its Southern French counterpart in the late 13th century.
Nikolaus “Nik” Welter was a Luxembourgish writer, playwright, poet, professor, literary critic, and statesman. He wrote predominantly in German. He also served as a Minister for Education in the government of Émile Reuter.
Occitania is the historical region in Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France as well as part of Spain, Monaco, and parts of Italy.
The Félibrige is a literary and cultural association founded in 1854 by Frédéric Mistral and other Provençal writers to defend and promote the Occitan language and literature. It is presided over by a capoulié. The name possibly derives from an apocryphal Provençal story of Christ disputing in the temple with the seven doctors [sét félibre] of law.
Joseph Roumanille was a Provençal poet. He was born at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône), and is commonly known in southern France as the father of the Félibrige, for he first conceived the idea of raising his regional language to the dignity of a literary language.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Joseph d'Arbaud was a French poet and writer from Provence. He was a leading figure in the Provençal Revival, a literary movement of the nineteenth century.
Mirèio is a poem in Occitan by French writer Frédéric Mistral. It was written in 1859, after eight years of effort. Mirèio, a long poem in Provençal consisting of twelve songs, tells of the thwarted love of Vincent and Mireille, two young Provençal people of different social backgrounds. The name Mireille is a doublet of the word meraviho which means wonder.
La Coupo Santo, in full La Cansoun de la Coupo in original modern norm Provençal is considered the anthem of the Félibrige. It is sung in Provençal, one of six Occitan dialects.
Placide Cappeau was a French poet and the author of the poem, "Minuit, chrétiens" (1847), set to music by Adolphe Adam and known in English as the carol "O Holy Night" or "Cantique de Noël".
Courmes is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. It is part of Préalpes d'Azur Regional Natural Park. In 2020, Courmes had a population of 108.
Captain William Charles Bonaparte-Wyse was an Irish soldier and poet.
The Mistralian norm is a linguistic norm for the Occitan language. It was first used in a published work by Joseph Roumanille in 1853, and then by Frédéric Mistral in 1854. Its aim is to make Provençal Occitan orthography more logical, relying on a mixture of traditional spelling and French spelling conventions.
Museon Arlaten is a museum dedicated to the ethnography of Provence. It is located in Arles, at 29, rue de la République, and it is housed in the 15th century hôtel particulier Laval-Castellane, now a monument historique.
Joseph Desanat (1796-1873) was a French Provençal poet and journal editor.
Anselme Mathieu was a French Provençal poet.
François Vidal was a French Provençal poet and activist.
Alexandrine Élisabeth Brémond, known as Brémonde de Tarascon or Bremoundo de Tarascoun, was a well known poet from the south of France who wrote in the Occitan language. She was a member of the Félibrige, a society that tried to preserve the language and its literature.
Valère Bernard was a Provençal painter, engraver, novelist and poet, writing in the Occitan language. He left an important body of graphic work, and his works continued to be published after his death.
The 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature was the fourth literary prize resulting from Alfred Nobel's will. It was equally divided between the French Provençal philologist Frédéric Mistral (1830–1914) "in recognition of the fresh originality and true inspiration of his poetic production, which faithfully reflects the natural scenery and native spirit of his people, and, in addition, his significant work as a Provençal philologist" and the Spanish engineer and dramatist José Echegaray Eizaguirre (1832–1916) "in recognition of the numerous and brilliant compositions which, in an individual and original manner, have revived the great traditions of the Spanish drama." The winners were announced in October 1904 by Carl David af Wirsén, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
References
1 2 3 4 5 Busquet, Raoul; Rollane, Henri (1951). "La généalogie de Mistral". Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France. 1 (1): 52–60. JSTOR40520865.
↑ (in French) Frédéric Mistral. Mes origines: mémoires et récits de Frédéric Mistral. Paris: Plon-Nourrit, ca 1920. Page 9.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
