French novelist, poet, and critic Claude Simon (1913–2005) received the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature. His many works available in English translation include The Grass (1960), The Flanders Road (1961), The Palace (1963), Histoire (1968), Conducting Bodies (1974), Triptych (1976), Georgics (1989), The Invitation (1991), and The Acacia (1991). Louis Cancelmi’s translations of his poems “Archipelago” and “North” in this issue are copyright © 1974, 2009 Les Éditions de Minuit.