The phenomenon, poiesis, and “intellectual sensibility” in Valéry Translating “Rachel”

For Valéry, translating is an act of transformation and transmutation where the mechanisms of the perceived, the conceived and the felt are in full play. And the translator cannot ignore that Valéry’s art of langage is based on a close attention to the minutest of details within the organisation of a text. An extract from “Rachel”, taken from Valéry’s Broken Thoughts, will illustrate these points in the second part of my work.