Bernat Manciet (; 27 September 1923,

Sabres, Landes Sabres (; ) is a commune in the Landes department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Landes department The following is a list of the 327 communes of the Landes department of France ...

, France – 3 June 2005,

Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (; Gascon dialect, Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a communes of France, commune and capital of the Landes (department), Landes Departments of France, department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Population Milit ...

) was a famous

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language, spoken in parts o ...

author.

Biography

Manciet attended school first in his native Sabres and then spent three years in the ''

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

'' of

Talence Talence (, ; , ; ) is a commune in the department of Gironde, administrative region of New Aquitaine, France. It is the third-largest suburb of the city of Bordeaux, and is adjacent to it on the south side. It is a member of the Bordeaux Mét ...

where he lived at his uncles', who were priests. They taught him

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

. He went on to sit his ''

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

'' in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

on a Sunday of June, 1940. His education provided him with an incredible erudition that transpired from his every phrase. As

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

broke out, Manciet started studying literature and political sciences. This is how he became a

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

with

Marie-Pierre Kœnig Marie Joseph Pierre François Kœnig or Koenig (10 October 1898 – 2 September 1970) was a French general during World War II during which he commanded a Free French Brigade at the Battle of Bir Hakeim in North Africa in 1942. He started a poli ...

, who was a high commissioner in Germany at a time when the defeated nation was trying to rebuild itself. He also took part in the

Nuremberg Trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...

. In 1955, his diplomatic career led him to such places as

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, from where his acute geopolitical skills probably sprang. Back in the Landes, he wed, fathered five children and ran his step-family's company, only for it to go bankrupt after ten years. Bernat Manciet managed ''Òc'' magazine but always refused to side with such Occitan activists as

Robèrt Lafont Robèrt Lafont (; March 16, 1923 in Nîmes – June 24, 2009 in Florence) was a French intellectual from Provence. He was a linguist, an author, an historian, an expert in literature and a political theoretician. His name in French reads Robe ...

and

Max Roqueta Max Roqueta ( Argelliers, December 8, 1908 – June 22, 2005) was one of the most famous contemporary Occitan writers. A physician, he was also an activist (he had been president of the Institut d'Estudis Occitans The Institut d'Estudis Occitans (E ...

, with whom he nonetheless was quite friendly.

Literary career

A poet, a novelist, a playwright, an

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

ist, a literary review director, an artist... Bernat Manciet also came on stage to recite his poems and even took part in shows alongside Bernard Lubat in Uzeste. In 1972 already,

Renat Nelli Renat Nelli (), who was born in Carcassonne, Aude in 1906 and died in 1982, was one of the major Occitan writers of the 20th century. In Vichy France, Nelli joined the French Resistance and in 1945 was one of the co-founders of the Institut d'E ...

wrote about Manciet in a bilingual collection of poems called ''La Poésie occitane'' (published by Seghers): :"One won't have long to wait before an overall study of Manciet's work is made. Maybe it will help understand better this giant of originality, whose unremitting literary renewal and lyrical intimate spring have no cause to be jealous of the latest Parisian trends. With

René Char René Émile Char (; 14 June 1907 – 19 February 1988) was a French poet and member of the French Resistance. Biography Char was born in L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Vaucluse department of France, the youngest of the four children of Emile ...

and

Salvatore Quasimodo Salvatore Quasimodo (; 20 August 1901 – 14 June 1968) was an Italian poet and translator, awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which with classical fire expresses the tragic experience of life in our own times" ...

, Bernat Manciet is undoubtedly one of the great and underrated poets of modern Europe."

Bibliography

* ''Le Triangle des Landes'' (1981) * ''L'Enterrament a Sabres'' (1996) * ''Accidents'' (1955) * ''Le Jeune homme de novembre'' / ''Lo Gojat de noveme'' (1995) * ''Les Émigrants'' or ''Iphigénie devant la gare'' (1999) * ''Cobalt'' (2002) * ''De nouveau Cordoue'' / ''Cordoa enqüèra'' (2004) * ''Casaus perduts'' (2005) * ''Jardins perdus'' (2005) * ''Les Murmures du mal'' (2006) * ''Lo Brèc'' (2006)

External links

On Poezibao
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Manciet, Bernat 1923 births 2005 deaths 20th-century French poets French male poets Occitan-language writers People from Landes (department) Winners of the Prix Broquette-Gonin (literature) Writers from Nouvelle-Aquitaine