K. M. 1932

Au souvenir de Katherine Mansfield

K. M. 1932

In memory of Katherine Mansfield

This hitherto unknown poem about Katherine Mansfield, by French poet Philippe Chabaneix (1898–1982), was published in the French journal Mercure de France on 1 January 1955, on page 47. It was brought to my attention by Professor James Sexton, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, to whom I extend my grateful thanks. The poem offers a tantalising, ephemeral portrait of Mansfield in the spring of 1915, when she was residing at Francis Carco’s little apartment on the quai aux Fleurs, situated on the Ile de la Cité in the heart of Paris, and offers a hitherto unknown connection to yet another French writer.

The story of Mansfield’s visit to Francis Carco at the Front in early 1915 is well known. In February 1915, Mansfield had become increasingly disillusioned by her relationship with John Middleton Murry and believed herself to be in love with Carco (whom she had first met in 1912 in the early days of her relationship with Murry), and with whom she was sharing an increasingly amorous correspondence. Thus she travelled to Paris, and from there made the difficult journey to see Carco, who was now stationed in the war zone, working as a military postman in Gray (Haute-Saône), in north-east France.