View source for L'après-midi d'un faune (poem)

{{Short description|1876 poem by Stéphane Mallarmé}}
{{italic title}}
[[Image:Manet faune.gif|thumb|right|Frontispiece for ''L'après-midi d'un faune'', drawing by Édouard
Manet.]]
[[Image:Mallarmé_Pan_1887.jpg|thumb|right|[[Stéphane Mallarmé]] as a faun, cover of the literary magazine ''Les hommes d'aujourd'hui'', 1887]]
'''''L'après-midi d'un faune''''' (or "'''The Afternoon of a Faun'''") is a poem by the French author [[Stéphane Mallarmé]]. It describes the sensual experiences of a [[faun]] who has just woken up from his afternoon sleep and discusses his encounters with several [[nymph]]s during the morning in a dreamlike monologue.
It is Mallarmé's best-known work and a landmark in the history of [[Symbolism (arts)|symbolism]] in French literature. [[Paul Valéry]] considered it to be the greatest poem in French literature.<ref>Weinfield, Henry. ''Stephane Mallarme, Collected Poems''. Translated with commentary. 1994, University of California Press. Online version at [https://books.google.com/books?id=-9pqyo8gpPgC&q=the+afternoon+of+a+faun GoogleBooks]</ref>
==History==
Initial versions of the poem, originally titled ''Le Faune, intermède héroique'' were written between 1865 (the first mention of the poem is found in a letter Mallarmé wrote to [[Henri Cazalis]] in June 1865) and 1867. Mallarmé submitted the first text to the Théâtre-Français in 1867, only to be rejected. Ten years later, under the title ''Improvisation d’un Faune'' the work was rejected again, this time by publisher [[Alphonse Lemerre]], who had previously published Mallarmé's work in ''Parnasse contemporain''. Mallarmé left Lemerre and found Alphonse Derenne, an editor, publisher, and bookseller of primarily medical books who sought to expand his business. The final text was published in 1876 (see [[1876 in poetry]]) by Derenne under the present title ''L'après-midi d'un faune''. For the publication, Mallarmé's long-time friend, [[Édouard Manet]], created four wood-engraved embellishments which were printed in black, and hand-tinted in pink by Manet himself in order to save money.
Mallarmé's poem would provide the inspiration for many musical works, the most prominent of which being ''[[Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune]]'' by [[Claude Debussy]]. Other composers who drew subject matter and inspiration from Mallarmé’s poetry include [[Maurice Ravel]] in ''[[Trois poèmes de Mallarmé]]'' (1913), [[Darius Milhaud]] with ''Chansons bas de Stéphane Mallarmé'' (1917), and [[Pierre Boulez]], with his hour-long solo soprano and orchestra piece ''Pli selon pli'' (1957–62).  The poem also served basis for the [[ballet]]s ''Afternoon of a Faun'' by [[Afternoon of a Faun (Nijinsky)|Vaslav Nijinsky]] (1912), [[Afternoon of a Faun (Robbins)|Jerome Robbins]] (1953) and [[Afternoon of a Faun (Rushton)|Tim Rushton]] (2006).  Debussy's orchestral work and Nijinsky's ballet would be of great significance in the development of [[modernism]] in the arts.
==Editions==
===Translations===
* (English) ''The Afternoon of the Faun'', translated by [[Roger Fry]], in ''The Poems of Mallarmé'', Chatto and Windus, 1936 {{oclc|1616026}}
* (English) ''A Faun in the Afternoon'', translated by E.&nbsp;H. Blackmore and A.&nbsp;M. Blackmore, in ''Collected Poems and Other Verse'', 2006
* (English) ''Collected Poems: A Bilingual Edition'', Stéphane Mallarmé, translated by Henry Weinfield, University of California Press, {{oclc|9780520948112}} (1st edition 1994 {{ISBN|9780520948112}}; 2nd edition 2011 {{ISBN|0520948114}})
* (Finnish)'' Faunin iltapäivä: valitut runot'', Einari Aaltonen, 2006
==Notes==
<references/>
==Sources==
*Hendrik Lücke. ''Mallarmé - Debussy. Eine vergleichende Studie zur Kunstanschauung am Beispiel von "L'Après-midi d'un Faune"''. (''Studien zur Musikwissenschaft'', Vol. 4). Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2005, {{ISBN|3-8300-1685-9}}.
==External links==
{{wikisourcelang | fr | L’Après-Midi d’un faune|''L’Après-Midi d’un faune''}}
*[https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/L’Après-Midi_d’un_faune The poem] in French on [[wikisource]]
*[http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/French/Mallarme.htm#_Toc223495077 English translation] (2004–2009) by A.&nbsp;S. Kline
{{Stéphane Mallarmé}}
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[[Category:1876 poems]]
[[Category:Poetry by Stéphane Mallarmé]]
[[Category:Fauns in popular culture]]
[[Category:Mythology in written fiction]]