Galand, René

English

Wellesley College

Wellesley College
Wellesley College Digital Scholarship and Archive
French Faculty Scholarship French
2002
Form and Meaning of the Spiritual Struggle in the
Poetry of Maodez Glandour
René Galand
Wellesley College
Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.wellesley.edu/frenchfaculty
Translated from Reun ar C’halan [Ren Galand], “Stumm ha ster ar stourm speredel e Komzoù bev”, Al
Liamm, niv. 331 (2002), PP. 78-84
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Recommended Citation
Galand, René, "Form and Meaning of the Spiritual Struggle in the Poetry of Maodez Glandour" (2002). French Faculty Scholarship.
Paper 8.
http://repository.wellesley.edu/frenchfaculty/8
  
René Galand, Form and meaning of the spiritual struggle in the poetry of 
Maodez Glandour  
 
 "Le combat spiritual est aussi brutal que la bataille d’hommes » (Arthur Rimbaud, Une 
Saison en enfer).  
  
 I first read a work of Maodez Glanndour, Le Mauvis de proche-nuit (a French translation 
of his poem Milc’hwid ar serr-noz) in Armand Robin’s Poésie non traduite. My immediate 
reaction: “This is a true poet.” Years later I discovered another one in Frañsez Kervella’s study 
on Breton versification, where Glanndour’s poem Erc’h war an enezeg [snow on the islands] was 
quoted in its entirety [See final note for references and abbreviations]. When I started to write 
poems in my native Breton, I was happy to find out that Maodez Glanndour had been on the jury 
which had awarded me the Xavier de Langlais Prize in Breton literature. This is when I first 
wrote to him, and we exchanged some letters. He gave excellent advice to younger writers, and 
he did encourage them. He had no equal for explaining to them the exact meaning of rare words 
or expressions. He did not always share their ideas or agree with their way of writing, but, as he 
wrote in one letter, “da bep unan da vont avat gant hent ar frankiz" [let everyone follow the road 
of liberty]. He also wrote: «Santerezh don, skritur pizh, setu merk ar gwir skrivagnerien » [Deep 
sensibility, spare style, such is the hallmark of authentic writers]. I have another reason for 
placing Maodez Glanndour in the top rank of poets: his conception of poetry. It is manifested in 
every one of his books, and especially in Komzoù bev [Living words].  
 Poets like Paul Claudel, Saint-John Perse and Jorge Guillén have had the power to make 
visible the beauty of creation. This is also what Maodez Glanndour does. Under his eyes, the 
slightest detail is changed into a marvel: a white kitten playing with dry leaves, two butterflies 
above the blue sea, a glowworm in a strong wind, the play of midges in the last rays of the sun 
(KB, pp. 82-85). Dry leaves unfold their wings, and they suddenly change into “evned bev, evned, 
/ O tinijal da bell" [Living birds, birds / Flying in the distance]  (KB, p. 46) 
 Maodez Glanndour mentions a rhyme about the sun which a mother composed for her 
children” :"Me'm eus ur moutig brav / Na gar nag an noz nag ar glav, / Kement a sked a zo 
dezhañ / Ma n'hellan ket sellout outañ" [I have a beautiful kitty / Who cares neither for night nor 
rain, / He shines so much / That I can’t look at him] (KB, p. 121).The woman’s feeling for nature 
is similar to Saint Francis of Assisi’s. She never heard of Keats, but she could have made hers his 
celebrated line:”A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” (KB, p. 100). Maodez Glanndour has 
followed his people’s example (KB, pp. 13, 70). Ten strings on his harp are not enough for him. 
He needs "skeul diniverus an holl draoù" [the infinite scale of all things] in order to “pignat ha 
diskenn gant skeul-gan an holl voudoù ha klevout o sonadeg veur" [go up and down the scale of 
all beings and hear their majestic symphony] " (KB, p. 15). Every being speaks and sings: a blue 
tit, a redbreast, and the erratic choir of midges as well as the music of the spheres. ((KB, pp. 33-
36, 44, 59). 
 Why so much joy? The answer is clear:” Ar bezañ a zo abeg a-walc'h da bep boud. Ha 
bleunienn ar bezañ eo al levenez. Galvet gant Doue e teñvalijenn an nannvoud e respont pep tra 
dezhañ gant levenez" [Being is reason enough for each creature. And the flower of being is joy. 
Each thing called by God from the darkness of non-bing amswers to him with joy] (KB, p.37). 
 Maodez Glanndour would agree with Saint Thomas Aquinas, for whom evil is emptiness, 
nothingness. This is why rejecting Being is the worst sin, the sin against the Spritit. The Creator 
has given man the freedom to choose:”An dibab a zo lezenn ar vuhez. Hag hon dilenn 'zo hini ur 
bersonelezh, hini ur youl gouiziek evit en em ren.” [Choice is the law of life. And our choise is 
the choice of a person, the choice of a will able to govern itself] (KB, p. 14). Every one may 
choose between the Angel of life and the disciples of nothingness:” Gant hor youl eo un drama a 
renomp" [It is a drama which we conduct with our will]  (KB, p. 14). And this is the spiritual 
drama which unfolds in the long poem Imram. 
 The title of the poem refers to an Old Irish literary genre, a story about an adventurous sea 
voyage, an odyssey. In Maodez Glanndour’s poetic narrative, the protagonist is an explorer. As 
he navigates on he sea of his imagination, his boat encounters unknown lands. The first one is the 
accursed land of the Giants’ War :"An douar-mañ 'zo leun a nevedoù / Savet da furmioù lies an 
emgarantez, / Ha pep hini a yudas: Me eo Doue. Emgann doueoù gant o c'hoant foll da holl 
lezenn" [This land is full of sanctuaries / Erected to the various forms of self-love, / And 
everyone shouted: I am God. The combat of gods filled with their mad desire to be the entire 
law] (KB, p. 148).  
 The explorer goes farther in his search for  "an enezenn c'houdoret / E-lec'h n'eus 'met 
karantez, levenez dibaouez" [a sheltered island / Where there is only love, an endless joy] , for 
"Bro venniget ar Boudiged",[ the blessed Fairyland], but under their pretty faces there was only 
“Soubenn ar sorsered” [a witch brew], "Dourenn kalonoù naered, belostoù pauned, / Teodoù 
kegined, krabanoù guped" [the juice from the hearts of snakes, peacock rumps of peacocks, / 
Tongues of jays, claws of vultures] (KB, pp. 149-151).  
 The explorer must go still farther to find refuge “En enez c'hlas an natur c'hlan, / An enez 
ha n'eo ket bet saotret gant fallentez an den" [In the blue island of pure nature / The island which 
has notd been polluted by man’s folly], but this island also has been poisoned by the venom of 
evil which penetrated it as a consequence of original sin. (KB, pp. 152-153).  
 He has to sail beyond the deceptive islands of this world and cross the perilous immensity 
of night before God’s prophet comes to cleanse his weak heart: :"Glaouenn al luc'h gwirion war 
da zaoulagad luch! / A mab-den! evit kement a zo bet tors ha daonet enno. / Ha bremañ, lavar 
d'ar bed petra 'welez ganto" [The glowing ember of the true light on your squinting eyes! O man! 
for everything that has been warped and damned in them, tell the world what you now see?]” 
(KB, p. 157). He has to struggle through “Noz c'hwerv, noz c'harv, / Noz an doan, noz ar boan, / 
Noz ar gwall, noz ar fall, / Noz ar glac'har, noz ar c'harc'har” [The bitter night, the cruel night / 
The night of suffering, the night of pain, / The night of evil, the night of badness, / The night of 
despair, the night of prison] ((KB, p. 172) before he can reach his goal:“En noz a feiz, te 
sklerijenn va meiz / Dremm veurdezus Jezuz Roue”[ In the night of faith, you light of my spirit / 
Majestic face of King Jesus]  (KB, p. 175). He now understands that his world is only “ur 
skeudenn-lu e skoaz lugern an da-zonet” [a travesty compared to the light to come] (KB, p. 168). 
One must “dilezel ar gorre, ha mont ha selaou, / Betek ar pep donañ e kalon an traoù, selaou / 
Ha klevout o c'hevrin, o c'homz kuzh / ... / Betek al lusk, al lañs kentañ” [leave the surface, and 
go and listen, / Until what is deepest in the heart of thing, listen / And hear tdheir secret, their 
hidden speech / … / Until the first motion, the initial push] which was given them “eus Doue da 
zistreiñ da Zoue” [by God to return to God] (KB, pp. 169-170). Earthly beauty must fade and die: 
“Pep tra 'varv, met n'eo ket en holl ez afent da goll. / Ha pa'z a da get tra genedus / E kutuilh an 
 Aeled an anien frondus o tiflukañ, / Da Jezuz d'he mirout en e galon, / Evit un deiz he 
dasorc'hiñ” [All things die, but they don’t die totally. / And even if every thing of beauty should 
die / The Angels gather their essence as it escapes, / So that Jesus may keep it in his heart, / To 
raise it up again one day] (KB, p. 180). 
 Such is the mystery of Salvation. Struggle, purification through suffering, understanding, 
vision of God. These are the stages through which the protagonist of the Greek drama must pass: 
agôn, katharsis, anagnôrisis, epiphaneia. The structure is similar, but its meaning is entirely 
different. The drama of Oedipus exemplify the ruthless law of the Ananke: he did not want to kill 
his father nor sleep with his mother, but he could not escape his fate. He also had to pay for his 
hamartia, although he was not responsible for it. Maodez Glanndour presents another law, the 
Law of Love which Christ brought to men: every sin is redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice. 
 The structure of Imram is that of a spiritual struggle: the struggle of the artist, the struggle 
of the poet as well as the struggle of man. In the perilous fight, the heart can still sing: :"Rak 
kerdiñ violoñsoù ne sonont nemet tenn, / Nemet gwasket en krog an dorn hag ar wareg. / Hag 
evelse kerdin ar gomz, da werzennoù rankes gweañ / Abarzh d'o skrij bezañ ur marzh" [For the 
violin strings cannot produce their music unless they are drawn tight, / Unless they are pressed by 
the hand and the bow, / And it is the same for the strings of speech, you must twist your verse / 
So that its cry becomes a marvel” (KB, p. 173). The explorer struggled through the night of 
suffering. At the end of his Imram, he finds his reward. His soul shall have satisfaction: :  « Ya, 
krediñ 'ran, rak da gomz n'eo ket un touell, / E taskori din, d'an deiz diwezhañ, kement 'zo 
ac'hanon, / Va gwad-me, va c'halon-me, va zemz-spered, nann, ne gollin netra: / Brezhon ac'h 
eus va krouet, brezhon ec'h adsaviñ / Gant va yezh disprizet em genou, / Ha komprenet e vo gant 
an dismegañser a-wechall, / Gant ar Gall" [Yes, I believe it, for your word is no illusion, / That 
you will give back to me, on the final day, everything that is mine, / My blood, my heart, my 
temperament, non, I shall lose nothing: / Breton you created me, Breton I will be resurrected / 
With my language within my mouth, / And I will be understood by the one who used to scorn 
me, / By the French”  (KB, p. 182). 
 Such is the artist’s mission: reveal to his brothers "an holl wirionez, / Douarel ha neñvel, 
/ An holl gened, ha dastum, liestumm, / C'hwerv ha c'hwek, d'he diskuliañ, / Da sevel en o c'hreiz 
bedoù ar skrij, bedoù ar marzh, / Ha diskouez a-dreñv d'an dremwelioù glizin / Da luc'h dizivius 
o parañ, Doue da!" [the whole truth, / Earthly and heavenly, the worlds of the cry, the worlds of 
the marvel, / And show them behind the blue horizons / How your inexhaustible light, O God!, is 
shining] KB, p. 185). Man willl be saved if he strives to go toward God, the Creator of Being, 
and if he fights against Non-being. The Evil Spirit, for Maodez Glanndour as well as for Goethe, 
is the one "der stets verneint". Such are the main concepts presented by Maodez Glanndour in all 
his  poetry: the glorification of being, the fight against Non-being.   
 The song of the thrush at twilight causes the poet to answer its song and to “deurel gant 
nerzh e galon / Un hesonenn da eren an douar hag an neñv” [throw with the strength of his heart 
/ An echo between the earth and the sky], and thus to reveal the secret ties between man and the 
world, between spirit and matter, between light and shade, between harmony and dissonance (T, 
pp. 14, 16, 28).  The song of the thrush rises above “ sabad ar bouc'hed".[the sabbat of the billy-
goats ( The billy-goat being commonly associated with the devil)]. Similarly, the voice of the 
poet also rises  above the "fals-doueoù", the '"arc'hveleion an Naer-gobra" [the false gods, the 
arch-priests of the Cobra], the howling of the idiotic crowd, the drums of lies, just as Christ 
 triumphed over the badness of the world (T, pp. 35-38).  In Vijelez an deiz diwezhañ [Doomsday 
Vigil], the poet must fight against “the lackeys of Non-being”, against  "an dud-preñved / O 
vordilhañ war an aodoù" [the men-worms / Who swarm on the sea-shores],   against all those 
who have made of the "mammennoù ar vuhez / Un andon a varv" [springs of life  / A source of 
death]. His soul will have to cross the dark night before the Judgment Day comes to return to him 
“evel Salomon d'ar vaouez / e herezh kolled” [as Solomon did to the woman / His lost heritage] 
(VADD, lodenn 1). The man who speaks in the poems of  Va levrig skeudennoù [My booklet of 
images ] is also a bold fighter. Never will he eat "bara ar vezh" [the bread of shame]. Never will 
he submit to the "vevelien Gaesar"  [the valets of Caesar] (VLS, pp. 40-42). He will live like the 
music-boy “A sone 'vit ar bed, 'vit ar mor / 'Vit an evned, 'vit ar pesked, / 'Vit an avel a dremene, 
/ Evit ar vuhez a gane...” [Who played for the world, for tdhe sea, / For the birds, for the fish, / 
For the wind which passed, / For the life which sang] (VLS, pp. 10-11). 
 Maodez Glanndour died on November 25, 1986:  may his soul, some day, rejoice in 
seeing his dream for his country become reality. 
  
NOTE Diaziezoù ar sevel gwerzioù (Al Liamm, 1965, niv. 108, 109, 110, 111, 112).  
The followwing abbreviations have been for the titles of Maodez Glanndour’s poetry collections: 
KB: Komzoù bev [Living words] (La Baule: Skridoù Breizh, 1949) 
VADD: Vijelez an deiz diwezhañ [Doomsday Vigil] (Brest: Al Liamm, 1978) 
VLS: Va levrig skeudennoù [My Book of Images] (Brest: Al Liamm, 1983) 
T: Telennganoù [Songs for the Harp] (Brest: Al Liamm, 1985) 
 René Galand, Professor of French emeritus, Wellesley College 
Translated from Reun ar C’halan [Ren Galand], “Stumm ha ster ar stourm speredel e Komzoù 
bev”, Al Liamm, niv. 331 (2002), PP. 78-84 
  


Form and Meaning of the Spiritual Struggle in the Poetry of Maodez Glandour

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Form and Meaning of the Spiritual Struggle in the Poetry of Maodez Glandour

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