Notice biographique Henri-Pierre Roché (1876-1959)

Par Anonymous [Broadway Photo Shop, New York] — Centre Pompidou, Domaine public, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=108384310

Henri Roché was called Pierre Roché then Henri-Pierre Roché

He was born on May 28th, 1876 in Paris 6e, and died on April 8th, 1959, in Sèvres.

• Gender: Male 

• City/cities where the translator lived: 

Roché was born in Paris where he spent his childhood. He attended high school and university. He lived with his mother and visited his grandparents also living in Paris. He then visited England and lived in New York City. 

• Education

Roché was home-schooled by his mother until 8 years old. He attended « Bossuet », still at 51 rue Madame, on the other side of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. He received an innovative education from a priest that promoted children’s self-fulfillment, particularly through sport.

Her mother ambitioned to make a diplomat of her son and to help him practice languages, she took him to Heidelberg in the summer of 1894.

In July and August 1898, she led a true expedition to explore the Netherlands and around thirty German cities, during which she started a diary. “Pierre” discovered a passion for painting through Rubens.

The following year, the teenager lost his maternal grandfather. At seventeen, he moved in with his mother and grandmother on the third floor of 99, boulevard Arago, near Place Denfert-Rochereau. He obtained his baccalauréatat Louis-le-Grand with a year’s advance and enrolled in the Faculty of Law while attending Sciences Po, where he attended Albert Sorel’s class (Sorel was a French historian). 

Roché’s Translations : 

« La Ronde » d’Arthur Schnitzler, Paris, 1902.

« La Maison vide » de Herbert Trench, Vers et prose, Paris, novembre 1906.

« L’Heure du thé » de F.W. Groves Campbell, Vers et prose, Paris, 1906.

« Un homme et une femme » d’Albert Dreyfus, Vers et prose, Paris, 1907.

Poèmes chinois de Herbert Giles, Vers et prose, Paris, 1907. 

« La Table carrée », traduit du Cor merveilleux de l’enfant, 1910.

« Tristan « d’August von Platen, 1910.

« Portraits de Picasso et Cocteau » de Gertrude Stein, 1911.

« Berlin ou le juste milieu » de Carl Sternheim, 1921.

Modernisation de l’État d’Indore, mémorandum collectif destiné à l’administration, 1940.

Translation in Roché’s life

Roché trained as a painter and became an art dealer, critic, and occasional journalist. He became a French writer at 64 after experiencing grief. Translation played a minor role in his life.

Poèmes chinois de Herbert Giles. The French adaptations appeared from 1905 to 1907 in Vers et prose, a magazine edited by Paul Fort and André Salmon.

Original Poems in English:

 Chinese poetry in English verse by Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935), 1898.

Poèmes chinois  were set into music by Albert Roussel (op. XII, in 1908, op. XXXV in 1927, op. XLVII in 1932) or by Fred Barlow.

  • « À un jeune gentilhomme », anonyme – Roussel opus XII 
  • « Vois ! De belles filles de Huang Fuyan (716 – 769) » – Roussel opus XLVII
  • « Réponse d’une épouse sage de Chang Chi (710 – 782) « – Roussel opus XXXV
  • « Favorite abandonnée de Li Yi (748 – 829) » – Roussel opus XLVII – Barlow
  • « Des fleurs font une broderie sur le gazon de Li Ho » (790 – 816) – Roussel opus XXXV
  • « Amoureux séparés de Fou Mi » (105l – 1107) – Roussel opus XII
  • « When-Chûn » – Barlow
  • « Comme la fleur de pêcher… « – Barlow

The texts of the melodies are by Henri-Pierre Roché, based on an English translation by Herbert Allen Giles of Chinese poetry published in Chinese Poetry in English Verse (London, Quaritch, 1898, reprinted 1902). 

Giles’s Translation of Huang-Fu-Jen

SPRETÆ INJURIA FORMÆ

See! fair girls are flocking, through corridors bright, 

With music and mirth borne along on the breeze …

Come, tell me if she who is favoured tonight 

Has eyebrows much longer than these?

Huang-fu Jen 9th cent. AD

Henri-Pierre Roché’s translation

Vois ! De belles filles courent en bandes

Dans les larges couloirs,

Avec la musique et la gaieté portées sur la brise

Viens, dis-moi si celle qui, cette nuit, sera choisie

Peut avoir des cils beaucoup plus longs que ceux-ci.


OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
Bénédicte Coste (7 janvier 2025). Notice biographique Henri-Pierre Roché (1876-1959). Melliflux décadent. Consulté le 17 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/1316p