Paul Claudel and the death of Palinurus Virgil, Aeneid, V, 835–861

The nocturnal episode of the death of Palinurus, in the fifth song of the Aeneid, inspires in Claudel a fascination of which the interviews and prose texts bear the trace. This page is at the origin of a poetic "ecstasy" of which the poet retains the power of evocation only for himself; it does not constitute a principle of writing or rewriting but remains forever integrated, preserved in an immortal verse which concentrates its essence, aequatos spirant aurae, datur hora quieti.