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Pierre-Antoine Lebrun was born in Paris on November 29, 1785 and died on May 27, 1873. He was an important poet and writer of the 19th century of the Romantic school.<\/p>\n
He studied at the Military College of Saint-Cyr. He began his career writing works that glorified the first empire. In fact, his first work, “Ode to the Great Army” (Ode \u00e0 la grande arm\u00e9e – 1805), attracted the attention of Napoleon, who offered him a monthly remuneration from the state. He then wrote several works: Ulysses (1814), Marie Stuart (1820), Le Cid d’Andalousie (1825). In fact, the work of Marie Stuart (which was inspired by the charm and influence that Friedrich Schiller’s works exercised on him) was admitted to be one of the most important theatrical works of Romanticism. In 1822 he published a work on the death of Napoleon, which cost him his salary. He was a friend of many personalities from the world of intellectuals, such as Honore de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Sainte-Beuve, etc.<\/p>\n
Lebrun traveled to Greece before the Greek Revolution in 1820 on the ship Themistocles. During his trip, he heard Rigas Feraios\u2019s Thourios for the first time. Under the command of Tombazis, this ship proclaimed the Revolution in 1821 on most Greek islands. Many philhellenes, such as the American George Jarvis, also served on this ship during the Greek revolution.<\/p>\n
During his stay In Greece, he recorded his impressions and experiences. With this material he prepared one of his most important works, which was published in 1828 in Paris. This is a great poem entitled Le voyage de Gr\u00e8ce<\/em> (The Journey of Greece).<\/p>\n In the preface of his work he describes three categories of Greeks he met in pre-revolutionary Greece: the mountaineers who had maintained their independence to some extent, the seamen who were thinking of regaining it, and the inhabitants of the plains and cities that seemed to be unable to even dream of it, because they were fully acquainted with the idea of \u200b\u200bslavery.<\/p>\n Lebrun presents in his preface, which he wrote towards the end of the Greek Revolution, what he experienced and saw, while referring in detail to the Battle of Navarino.<\/p>\n Throughout the Greek Revolution, Lebrun was a supporter of the cause of the Greeks.<\/p>\n Pierre-Antoine Lebrun, Le Voyage de Gr\u00e8ce, Paris & Leipzig: Ponthieu etc Cie., 1828 (SHP Collection).<\/p><\/div>\n Thanks to his work Le Voyage de Gr\u00e8ce, Lebrun was elected member of the French Academy in 1828. In 1831 he was appointed director of the Imprimerie Royale in France, a position that he held until 1848. From 1839 to 1848 he was a member of the Council of State, and in 1853 he was elected senator.<\/p>\n Pierre-Antoine Lebrun’s handwritten letter (SHP Collection).<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n France honored him in 1836 with the Order of the Knight of the Legion of Honor, in 1839 he received a title of nobility, and in 1861 the medal of the Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor. In 1844 he was also honored by the Academy of Sciences of Bavaria.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pierre-Antoine Lebrun, Le Voyage de Gr\u00e8ce, “The Journey of Greece”<\/strong><\/p>\n Lito Seizani translated some representative parts of Pierre-Antoine Lebrun’s work, “The Journey of Greece”, and refers to the full of emotion poet:<\/p>\n “With heroic Greece, with the Greece of Europe, I often mixed the one I could call my own, the one that consists of places I saw, of people I met, of joys I experienced.”<\/em><\/p>\n And Lito Seizani states: “As for the poem itself? All the heroes of the Greek Revolution, as numerous as the places of the battles, parade through his lyrics. Lebrun’s lyrics are very important, I repeat, as they were written at the time the great events were taking place, they are essentially a living imprint at the same time, in literary form.<\/p>\n Lebrun sees ecstatic Greece for the first time in front of him and cannot hide his enthusiasm:<\/p>\n \u201cSparta was there, hidden. <\/p>\n And as Lito Seizani points out (litoseizani.com) \u201cTwo hundred years later, his lyrics seem to have been written today. Such are the powers of true love, of the heart that beats in the sight of a man or a place. And such is the love that Greece can give birth to, to Greeks and to foreigners”.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another extract from Le Voyage de Grece follows (free translation):<\/p>\n “Here are the heroes<\/em> <\/p>\n Pierre-Antoine Lebrun also wrote about an “anathema” while he was near Patras, a place with a pile of stones. He writes (free translation):<\/p>\n “Every Greek who passes there, out of weakness, outraged,<\/em> Pierre-Antoine Lebrun was born in Paris on November 29, 1785 and died on May 27, 1873. He was an important poet and writer of the 19th century of the Romantic school. He studied at the Military College of Saint-Cyr. He began his career writing works that glorified the first empire. In fact, his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biographies"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.eefshp.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Pierre-Antoine-Lebrun-2.jpg\")
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\nAnd I, high up on the mast
\nTowards her, towards her mountains, my eyes brought in haste
\nAnd stared focused, with tension and with thirst
\nI looked for her all over, her name I whispered
\nI laughed and I cried. Freedom, glory
\nLeonidas, Helena, legend and history
\nGreece with her arts, her wise men, her heroes
\nWas rising in front of me on the horizon of the waves
\nI was facing Greece and could not believe it!
\nThe more I felt her approaching\u2026
\nAt a moment like this someone else would have lost his memory!
\nO my heart, how you beat with this remembrance alone!<\/em>
\nAs he\u2019s about to set foot on the land, he\u2019s thinking:<\/em>
\nI\u2019m Greek just like them
\nYes, this is my country
\nAnd yes, like them, I\u2019m returning to the beloved coast
\nI know all the streets, I\u2019m familiar with all the names.\u201d
\n<\/em>(translated by Lito Seizani).<\/p>\n
\nHere are the heroes, here are the worthy sons!<\/em>
\nBotsari! The three hundred believed that they had found their leader again<\/em>
\nOld Kolokotroni, handsome Mavromichali,<\/em>
\nOdysseus with the eagle\u2019s eye, flying just as fast<\/em>
\nTzavella, Nikita, Mitso, fearless race<\/em>
\nYou are coming that is why I see the Ottomans turn pale<\/em>
\nIn the Archipelago I saw a huge fleet fleeing<\/em>
\nIs it, Canary, your fireships that advance?<\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>
\nTriumph! Hurry up heroic achievements<\/em>
\nHurry up happy times for my voice to praise you<\/em>
\nMake the time shine when Greece is finally free<\/em>
\nWith her sun, happy, sharing the joy<\/em>
\nIn the shadow of the cross she will go to sit crowned.<\/em>
\n…<\/em>
\nPeople, save a people who does not deserve slavery<\/em>
\nWhose courage puts up with terrible dangers.<\/em>
\nWill you leave him alone against so many hangmen?<\/em>
\nWithout, unfortunately, solidarity, since he has no leader<\/em>
\nHe has no weapons, no treasures. Does it have an arsenal?<\/em>
\nDoes it have lead, iron, muskets, gunpowder?<\/em>
\nDoes it have bread? Their fight may be yours too.”<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHe throws one at a time, and promises to take revenge on a Turk<\/em>
\nEvery stone is a wish, every stone a curse<\/em>
\nAnd it represents a sword, and it plans a death.<\/em>
\nThe curse grows, and the plain is filled. “<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"