Oliver Bernard (6 December 1925 – 1 June 2013) was an English

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

and

translator Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

. He is perhaps best known for translating

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he starte ...

into English as part of the

Penguin Classics Penguin Classics is an imprint of Penguin Books under which classic works of literature are published in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean among other languages. Literary critics see books in this series as important members of the Western ...

collection. Poet's Corner, Kenninghall

Bernard was born in London, to the English architect

Oliver Percy Bernard Oliver Percy Bernard OBE MC (8 April 1881 – 15 April 1939) was an English architect, and scenic, graphic and industrial designer. He was instrumental in developing conservative Victorian British taste in a modernist European direction; mu ...

OBE and the opera singer Dora Hodges. He had two brothers, the art critic and photographer

Bruce Bernard Bruce Bernard (; 21 March 1928 – 29 March 2000) was an English picture editor, writer and photographer. He wrote for the '' Sunday Times'' and the ''Independent'' and photographed many influential artists in a career lasting nearly 40 years. ...

and the journalist

Jeffrey Bernard Jeffrey Joseph Bernard (; 27 May 1932 – 4 September 1997) was an English journalist, best known for his weekly column "Low Life" in ''The Spectator'' magazine, and also notorious for a feckless and chaotic career and life of alcohol abu ...

. All three brothers were prominent in London's literary and artistic scene in the mid-twentieth century. He was a paternal cousin to the actor

Stanley Holloway Stanley Augustus Holloway (1 October 1890 – 30 January 1982) was an English actor, comedian, singer and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles Stanley Holloway on stage and screen, on stage and screen, especially t ...

. Bernard published a book of memoirs.

Tony Benn Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...

wrote of Oliver Bernard, "Oliver Bernard's ''Peace Poems'' are sensitive and perceptive in their description of the militaristic society which imprisons us all. They also offer some comforting visions of life as it could be if we release the compassion that is in us all." In later life, Bernard converted to Roman Catholicism and lived in a small cottage in

Kenninghall Kenninghall is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England, with an area of and a population of 950 at the 2011 census. It falls within the local government district of Breckland. Home to the kings of East Anglia, after the Norman invasion ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. In 1985 he spent several weeks in prison for his involvement in anti-nuclear

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

action as part of the

Snowball Campaign Angie Zelter (born 5 June 1951) is a British activist and the founder of a number of international campaign groups, including ''Trident Ploughshares'' and the ''International Women's Peace Service''. Zelter is known for non-violent direct action ...

. He was married twice and had three children. Following his death, villagers in Kenninghall created two circular walks to remember him, one through Kenninghall Woods, and the other to the Quidenham Monastery.

References

External links

*Translated Penguin Book – at
Penguin First Editions
reference site of early first edition Penguin Books. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Oliver 1925 births 2013 deaths English translators Writers from London English male poets 20th-century English poets 20th-century English translators 20th-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers Bernard family