About Everly
Everly Lovefield is a writer and translator from a small town between Houston and Galveston, Texas. She received a BA in French and Japanese from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Translation from Kent State University. Her work has been featured in Columbia Journal, Denver Quarterly, and Reunion: The Dallas Review, among others.
Everly is currently seeking a publisher for her translation of Renee Vivien’s poetry collection, La Vénus des aveugles [tr: The Venus of the Blind]. During her MA program, Everly translated thirteen of Vivien’s poems from French to English for her case study/thesis and after graduating, she continued translating Vivien’s work until she finished this collection. Since then, nine poems she translated from The Venus of the Blind have been published in literary journals.
About The Venus of the Blind and Renée Vivien
The Venus of the Blind is a collection of ethereal, sapphic poetry that explores the highs and lows of love, depression, and suicidality, while weaving in and retelling the stories of women from mythology, literature, and history through a gynocentric lens, thus reclaiming their stories. Despite being published over a century ago in 1904, the raw emotion and unapologetic feminism of Vivien’s poetry is still achingly relatable and relevant today.
Renée Vivien (1877–1909) was a British poet, writer, and translator who lived in Paris for most of her life. Her works are largely autobiographical and reflect the values of both the Symbolist and Parnassian literary movements. She is best known for being Sappho’s first lesbian translator and one of the first openly lesbian writers. Despite being well-known in francophone literary circles, little of her own work has been translated into English.
Excerpt from “Vindictive Dawn” by Renée Vivien
originally published in Hearth & Coffin
Your hair is a rainfall
Of gold and perfumes upon my hands.
You lead me into lands
Where perversity is not held in thrall.
I selected opal and moonstone,
Aconite and digitalis,
And from a deep lake black iris
To encircle your brow bone.
Ta chevelure est une pluie
D’or et de parfums sur mes mains.
Tu m’entraînes par les chemins
Où la perversité s’ennuie.
J’ai choisi, pour ceindre ton front,
La pierre de lune et l’opale,
L’aconit et la digitale,
Et l’iris noir d’un lac profond.