Montpellier (AFP)

The poet, novelist, translator, essayist and journalist Frédéric Jacques Temple died "very peacefully" on Wednesday at the age of 98, his wife told AFP.

Born August 18, 1921 in Montpellier, "FJT" had received in 2013 the Guillaume Apollinaire Prize for his poetic work which, like his novels "Les Eaux Mortes", "An Indian cemetery," The Enclosure "," La Route de San Romano "or" Le Chant des Limules ", combine Languedoc childhood, war breaking, momentum towards elsewhere, amazed encounters with artists, birds, plants ...

From an early age, he is attentive to the vibrations of nature, both during his games at the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier and in the family property by the sea which will be "buried" under the "false pyramids" of the promoters. de la Grande Motte (Hérault).

In 1942, he left for Algiers with his family, discovered Africa with fascination and notably frequented the bookstore of Edmond Charlot, the publisher of Albert Camus, who would also be his.

But from 1943 to 1946, "a fracture" arises for the young man: the terrible experience of war, especially during the Italian campaign.

Endowed with a deep taste for life, Temple then embarked on journalism, publishing poems, novels, translations (Thomas Hardy, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell), essays on DH Lawrence and Henry Miller. He often forges long-term friendships with great names in literature, painting and music: Blaise Cendrars, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Joseph Delteil, Richard Arlington, Mohammed Dib, Jean Giono, Pierre Soulages or even Georges Brassens.

In 1954, Temple was appointed director of French television broadcasting for Languedoc-Roussillon, where he remained until 1986.

Rooted in Languedoc, attached to the Mediterranean as to the thousand-year-old megaliths of Larzac, he has also traveled a lot around the world to "know himself differently".

An anthology of his poems was published at the beginning of 2020 by Gallimard. Soon after, his health suddenly declined. His last poems were published by Editions Bruno Doucey under the title "Par le sextant du soleil".

"For eternal exile, I will carry the burning smell of the grassland trampled by the hooves on the endless drailles rustling with cowbells," he wrote.

© 2020 AFP