Description

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT SIGNED Francis de Miomandre.

A literary pastiche of Paul Valery's famous poem, La Jeune Parque which Miomandre transforms into  Young Carp :

"The Young Carp
Who then dares to throw this bread into my pond
On my back, velvety with the moss of Time
At this hour when the child of the clouds, the Swan
Glides over the mirrors of the water its branch line
Let nothing disturb my sleeping domain;
This strong, black water with a dying sheen,
Of exhausted rays, of memories of rain,
Forgotten storms, buried lights;
And lower down, in the bosom of the soft depths
The secret kingdom of obscure splendours,
The seeds of august, nebulous life,
Mother of the water lilies, the Fabulous Vase
I don't want to leave the dreams where I live
To my sensitive beard, to my nostalgic eye
Whose age has frosted the magnificent crystal
To my silver face, to my wounded countenance,
As old as the Renaissance, you'd think
That three hundred years of mud wear away my memory
My beauty, the jewel of the Valois, has been scorned.
But no, I'm still the young daughter of kings
And, placing the crown of bubbles on my forehead,
This beautiful twilight is my first morning.
Fontainebleau
XX.IV.XXXIV
Francis Miomandre."

Miomandre was dazzled by the Young Parque and wrote a fiery article in Exelsior. Valery was touched by the article and sent him a long letter of thanks. 
"It's a safe bet that their friendship was born there. Valery and Miomandre were to see a lot of each other, to the point of becoming close friends."says Remi Rousselot in Francis de Miomandre,
a forgotten Goncourt. He cites this pastiche, without having had the opportunity to consult it, and notes: "It was not published and made Valery laugh a lot.".