Abstract:Lou Pouèmo dóu Rose by Frederic Mistral opens on the triumph of a thousand-year reign, that of the sailors of the Rhone. That great river is in itself a double-realm, solar and lunar. To the rhythm of the sailors’ cry of “Realm ! Empire !”, the poem nonetheless sweeps its reader towards a foreseen catastrophe, towards a shipwreck which we feel to be that of a ‘lost cause’ which nonetheless it has been necessary to celebrate
