Philippe Jaccottet Swiss poet, essayist, translator, writes in French. Date of Birth: 30.06.1925 Country: Switzerland

Biography of Philippe Jaccottet

Philippe Jaccottet is a Swiss poet, essayist, and translator who writes in French. He was born in a provincial town between Lausanne and Bern in 1933, and his family moved to Lausanne later on. In high school, Jaccottet developed a passion for the Greek language and studied under the prominent Hellenist André Bonnard at university. During the war years, he became friends with Gustave Roud, whom he considers his mentor. Although his collection of youth lyrics, "Black Lights," which was compiled in 1940, was not published, Jaccottet published his first poems in 1944. However, he considers his true debut in poetry to be the book "Resurgence" (1953).

From 1946 to 1953, Jaccottet lived in Paris, worked for one of the Lausanne-based publishing houses, and wrote reviews for Swiss newspapers and magazines. Since 1953, after marrying artist Ann-Marie Esler, he has been living in the southeastern part of France, in the ancient alpine town of Grignan. He has also traveled to countries such as Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Russia, and others. Jaccottet is known for his translations of poetry and prose, including works by Homer, Plato, Gongora, Petrarch, Tasso, Goethe, Leopardi, Holderlin, Rilke, Thomas Mann, R. Musil, Christine Lavant, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Eugenio Montale, Jan Skacel, Mandelstam, and Japanese poets. He is also the author of a monograph on R.M. Rilke (1971).

Jaccottet has received numerous Swiss, French, and international awards throughout his career, including the Canton of Vaud Prize in 1958, the Charles Ferdinand Ramuz Prize in 1970, the Lausanne Prize in 1970, the Montaigne Prize in 1972, the Gotthard Keller Prize in 1981, the Paris Grand Poetry Prize in 1986, the National Grand Translation Prize in 1987, the Petrarch Prize in 1988, the Holderlin Prize in 1997, the Community of Writers of France Prize in 1998, the Horst Bienek Prize in 2000, the Grand Schiller Prize of the Swiss Writers' Union in 2010, among others. His poetry has been translated into Turkish and most European languages. Several of his books have been illustrated by renowned artists such as Joan Miró, Pierre Tal-Coat, Cao Wuji, and Gérard de Palézieux.

Jaccottet's poems and prose reflect his concern for the contemporary individual and their surroundings, his uncertainty about the poet's special right to speak and their place in the world, and his awareness of the responsibility that comes with words. The poet himself described it in the following way in 1957: "I am aware that, in my eyes, the world is empty, dangerous, and that the only answer to this emptiness, to this danger is a form of silence." A large lecture hall at the University of Grenoble III is named after the writer.