Paris Between the Wars - "N" is for Anna de Noialles
Between 1919 and 1939, Paris experienced a cultural and intellectual boom. This blog will feature artists, writers, composers, musicians, and designers. Paris was at its cultural peak.
Born in Paris as Princess Anna Elisabeth Bibesco-Bassaraba de Brancovan (1876) to a Romanian father and Greek mother (both high-ranked members of their respective societies), she married Mathieu Fernand Frédéric Pascal de Noailles in 1897 and the couple became the toast of Parisian high society.She wrote three novels, an autobiography, and several collections of poetry, and was the first woman to be received in the Royal Belgian Academy of French Language and Literature. The collection Poème de l’amour (1924) is a long series of short poems. This is from “LXIX,” translated:
If words put you too ill at ease,
Say nothing. Dream. But be not cold.
Let me speak, me, who kiss you, hold
You in my arms; like woodland breeze
That murmurs low, let me enfold
You in great whispers, hushed, like these...
Anna de Noailles died at age 56, in Paris.