It’s in a bookshop with freshly painted partitions that Lahzar Nahal, writer of his state, welcomes his first guests. Right here, no lamps on the ceiling, solely discreet lights illuminate the covers of books in plain and pastel tones, the trademark of Éditions Aden that he directs. “I hate direct lights,” he says virtually timidly, on this massive room within the Latin Quarter, owned by the Metropolis of Paris. The letter lover, a connoisseur of poetry, is together with his spouse, a hospital oncologist, on the origin of an unique initiative within the publishing world: the poem by the gram.
The dimensions used to weigh the eight sheets crucial to achieve the required ten grams
© Jacques Paugam
An progressive idea symbolized by a stability within the nice custom of 19th century apothecaries. As soon as weighed, ten grams are price eight poems coated in black ink on as many sheets of thick paper known as “laid”. “It's the grammage that provides a extra refined aspect,” explains the bookseller, observing the delicate stability reached by the stability. Rimbaud, Pierre de Ronsard, Giacomo Leopardi or Matsuo Bashô… there’s a wide selection between classical poets, romanticists or haiku authors, these few verses of Japanese poetry within the type of a saying. And if all of the world poetry isn’t summarized within the few hundred poems organized so as on the cabinets, “it was crucial to decide on the languages”, specifies the bookseller, the Algerian authors rub shoulders with the good English classics as nicely French.
To the closest gram
On poetry, this poor relation of literature, Lahzar Nahal notes a revival of the style: “Individuals are extra open. I imagine they’re coming again a bit from expertise and in search of one thing that speaks to the soul. They see they usually enter. On this regard, an anecdote catches a smile: “One afternoon, a girl comes working and says: I wish to purchase 41 grams of poems, my buddy goes to be 41 years outdated. »Virtually poetic. Amongst guests of “all ages”, numerous college students compose, alone or accompanied, their bouquets of worms leaving Paris-IV, the close by college. From there to think about that the lyric flights of some will resemble the poems made out there … “A bit like an introduction, it’s much less intimidating than a guide offered individually”, justifies Lahzar Nahal, whereas welcoming of the reception acquired on this district ofe district of Paris, a paradise for booksellers for a very long time.
On the value of 5.80 euros for ten grams, the phrase craftsman would virtually be a grocer when he slipped the eight treasured sheets in a bag stamped “Just a few grams of poetry” and thanked his prospects like all good dealer. Nevertheless, a part of the income might be donated to a humanitarian mission on the island of Roume, this small strip of land with lower than a thousand inhabitants off the coast of Guinea. It’s stated to have impressed the eponymous treasure island from the novel by R. Louis Stevenson printed in France in 1885. The target? Set up an infirmary and maybe purchase a ship for the crossing between the neighboring islands. Assistance is welcome on this small West African nation wealthy in assets however whose GDP per capita does not exceed $ 1,000. When phrases carry weight.
Bookstore Lettres, positioned at 49, rue Lacépède in Paris, 5.80 euros for 10 grams of poems
