That Mighty Sculptor, Time

Working with Kaiser, who co-translated her novels ? Alexis and Two Lives and a Dream , Yourcenar (1903-1987) has rendered the nuances of her original French to subtle and profound effect in a work that is poetic and provocative. The title essay takes its name from a poem by Victor Hugo and echoes the theme that unifies all 24 essays included here: the ravages of time are inescapable, and we must make peace with them or perish in anguish. With characteristic breadth of vision, the author views creation and decay as inextricably linked. She writes, ``On the day when a statue is finished, its life, in a certain sense, begins''51 and, as this life unfolds and is publicly received, the statue will ``bit by bit return . . . to the state of unformed mineral mass out of which its sculptor had taken it.''51 In see fix above meditations on art, history and memory, Yourcenar addresses an impressive variety of subjects, from the nature of conversation in the historical novel to the celebration of the Days of the Dead . The book proves to be a beautiful and appropriate memento mori--one that salutes life while it commemorates death, claiming that though lives pass, life does not. (May)