Denise Lévy, née Kahn, later Denise Naville (1896-1979) was a French writer and translator.Isabelle Kalinowski
Denise Naville traductrice
in Françoise Blum, ed., ''Les vies de Pierre Naville''. Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2007. Active in early

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, she and her husband

Pierre Naville Pierre Naville (1 February 1903 – 24 April 1993) was a French Surrealist writer and sociologist.Stubb, JeremyObituary: Pierre Naville ''The Independent'', 3 June 1993. He was a prominent member of the "Investigating Sex" group of Surrealist ...

later moved away from surrealist activity to work with Leon Trotsky. She translated writing by Trotsky, Friedrich Hölderlin, Hans Erich Nossack, Carl von Clausewitz, Friedrich Engels,

Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...

and

Paul Celan Paul Celan (; ; 23 November 1920 – c. 20 April 1970) was a Romanian-born German-language poet and translator. He was born as Paul Antschel to a Jewish family in Cernăuți (German: Czernowitz), in the then Kingdom of Romania (now Chernivtsi, U ...

from German into French.A. Cuenot
NAVILLE Denise, née KAHN Denise
''Maitron'', version posted on November 30, 2010, last modified December 11, 2020. Accessed December 21, 2020.

Life

Denise Kahn was born on June 26, 1896, to a French-speaking family in

Sarreguemines Sarreguemines (; German: ''Saargemünd'' , Lorraine Franconian: ''Saargemìnn'') is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. It is the seat of an arrondissement and a canton. As of t ...

, then part of the German imperial province of Alsace-Lorraine. Simone Kahn (later Simone Breton) was a cousin. By 1920 she was an active part of socialist intellectual life in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

. In 1921 she married

Georges Lévy Georges may refer to: Places *Georges River, New South Wales, Australia *Georges Quay (Dublin) *Georges Township, Fayette County, Pennsylvania Other uses *Georges (name) *Georges (novel), ''Georges'' (novel), a novel by Alexandre Dumas *Georges ( ...

. Moving to Paris, she used her bilingualism to introduce friends to presurrealist currents in

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...

. Andre Breton,

Louis Aragon Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review ''Littérature''. He wa ...

, Rene Char and

Paul Eluard Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

all wrote poems to her. In 1926 she married

, the founding co-editor of ''

La Révolution surréaliste ''La Révolution surréaliste'' (English: ''The Surrealist Revolution'') was a publication by the Surrealists in Paris. Twelve issues were published between 1924 and 1929. Shortly after releasing the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'', André Breton ...

''. In the late 1920s the pair moved away from surrealism to concentrate on supporting Trotsky against the Stalization of the Communist International. They became friends of Leon and Natalia Trotsky in exile. She helped Trotsky translate several of his books into German, and she translated his ''Towards Socialism or Capitalism?'' into French. She died on 20 January 1979 in Paris. Kahn also made translations of Arnold Schönberg's ''Treaty of Harmony'', as well as work by Karl Marx, Frege and Ludwig Wittgenstein, which were never published. Louis Aragon's letters to Denise Lévy have been published, as have those of her cousin Simone Breton.Simone Breton, ''Lettres à Denise Lévy, 1919-1929: et autres textes, 1924-1975''. Ed. Georgiana Colville. Paris: J. Losfeld, 2005.

Works

Translations

* (anon.) 'Leonce et Lena' by Georg Büchner, ''Commerce'', 1924. * ''Correspondance complète'' by Friedrich Hölderlin. Paris: Gallimard, 1948. Translated from the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

''Interview mit dem Tode''. * ''Interview avec la mort'' by Hans Erich Nossack. Paris: Gallimard, 1948. * ''Dialectique de la nature'' by Friedrich Engels. Paris: Marcel Rivière, 1950. * ''De la guerre'' by Carl von Clausewitz. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1955. With a preface by Camille Rougeron and an introduction by Pierre Naville. Translated from the

Vom Kriege ''Vom Kriege'' () is a book on war and military strategy by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz (1780–1831), written mostly after the Napoleonic wars, between 1816 and 1830, and published posthumously by his wife Marie von Brühl in 1832. ...

''. * ''L'Économie politique du rentier'' by

Other writing

* 'Textes surrealistes', ''

'', No. 3 (April 1925)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Levy, Denise 1896 births 1979 deaths French surrealist writers French translators German–French translators French Trotskyists