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Where does the name of Camelat come from ?
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| PRESENTATION BY DOCTOR JEAN CHALIE When the « Société d’études des Sept vallées », knowing my deep affection for Arrens, told me to recall the memory of Miquèu de Camelat, I became aware of my insufficiency. Of course, from the visits to Miquèu in his grocer’s shop, I kept feelings and images still very alive. His natural distinction commanded deference. Rarely speeking, almost shy, sliding rather than walking, introverted for the young doctor I was, he blurred away in the mountains of Arrens. Like Beline, like the forest of the mountains of Arrens, when, in the blazing magnificence of a finishing autumn, she turns her soul deeper, he did the same with devotion. What is subjective stands on affectivity with the illusion that it supposes. |
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| So, I asked the friend, Robert Arnaut who had a long intellectual route with Miquèu de Camelat, I asked the author of « Les Corneilles blanches », novel inspired by the same Miquèu, to recall here, this noble figure of the literature and to give a tribute to him. Held back by his duties, please find what Robert Arnaut wrote on september, 15th of 1996, Day of Patrimony. | ||||||
| TEXT OF ROBERT ARNAUT read by the Doctor Jean Chalie, september, 15th during the Day of Patrimony 1996. « If Miquèu de Camelat was still alive, I am sure he would not be present at this ceremony . He would have been embarrassed by the honor you are paying to him. His modesty confines him in his small study, in the corner of his fireplace. We had the feeling that congratulations made him uncomfortable. He protected himself against flattery, lifting up the hand, as to ward off a slap. Hours I spent, in tête-à-tête, have been standing out for the rest of my life. He gave me his knowledge, almost apologizing. He taught me the value of silence. For most of his contemporaries, he was agrocer or a former mayor. So little a grocer ! So little a mayor ! … And so much a poet ! |
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| His works is comparable with those of Mistral. Mistral, moreover, acknowledged it, and wrote to him : « your character of Beline is the Mireille’s sister ». I was always surprised not to find the name of Camelat in encyclopaedias, in general anthologies. I did not understand why the german, dutch, romanian erudites came to his home while french people seem to ignore his works. When at last he was acknowledged by the official circles, and when André Malraux put his name on the merit list for « Legion d’Honneur », the journalist, author of the report, concluded : « With time, the pricky pears ripen » … Miquèu, of course, was 88 years old and his master works were finished, for Saint-Michel‘s day, in september 1898. Do not make the same mistake. Camelat is not only a bust in a public garden. The children of Arrens, of the Val d’Azun, of Bigorre have to know that this man is the symbol of their culture, that he honoured their mountainous homeland. For me, he is the one who was and who is still the « Pay », the « pay-chèt », the venerated ancester. |
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