Helpful information from Goodreads!
Carmen Bernos De Gasztold was one of the five children of a poor family in Arachon, a small town somewhere in France. Her father was a good man but didn't know how to earn enough for his family (like the father in Gabrielle Roy's The Tin Flute). He became unhinged and died when Carmen was only sixteen. During the second world war she worked in a laboratory of a silk factory, helping her mother and her young siblings endure the hunger and countless deprivations brought by the German occupation. It was then, during her free moments, that she began to write her poems.
In 1945 Carmen's mother died. They likewise lost their home at Arachon, and she became a governess of a French family in Lisbon where she became engaged to a man. On the eve of their marriage, unsure of her feelings, she backed out and broke the engagement. Later, she seemed to have found her true vocation, teaching little children. For some reasons, however, she suffered serious physical and mental breakdown. Her siblings were in no position to help her, having troubles of their own. Fortunately, a lifelong family friend, a nun in a monastery, heard about her plight and took her in. There, for many years, the nuns took care of her until she got well. They encouraged her to continue writing and printed her work for local use.
Ms. Rumer Godden was once helping the nuns clean out a cupboard in the convent and there she accidentally discovered Carmen's poems. Captivated by their charm she translated them from their original French to English. "Prayers from the Ark" are what Carmen imagined the animals in Noah's Ark (and Noah himself!) were praying for. These poems brought Carmen renown, becoming a bestseller in Europe. "The Creatures' Choir" likewise have poet animals declaiming, but no longer in supplication. Whereas the animals in the Ark plead, those in the Choir seem to complain or just say whatever it is that's in the minds. All the poems in both books, however, are addressed to God and end with an Amen.
Penguin (the book company, not the animal) first published this one-volume edition in 1976 and has since undergone several reprinting. Let me now give you two examples of the Ark poems--
THE PRAYER OF THE LITTLE BIRD
I don't know how to pray by myself
protect my little nest from wind and rain?
Put a great deal of dew on the flowers,
Make Your blue very high,
let Your kind light stay late in the sky
and set my heart brimming with such music
that I must sing, sing, sing...
You draw me away from earth,
in a passion of shrilling,
where, for an instant, You crucify me.
When will You keep me forever?
Must You always let me fall
back to the furrow's dip,
let my exultant nothingness
soar to the glory of Your mercy,
The cock, dog, goldfish, little pig, little ducks, foal, donkey, bee, monkey, butterfly, giraffe, owl, cricket, cat, glow-worm, mouse, goat, elephant, ox, ant, tortoise, old horse, raven, dove and Noah himself also have their own prayer-poems.
in my mother-of-pearl house,
I drink in a dream from the sea:
Oh, let an iridescent pearl--
find its tints in the heart of my life.
nothing else will matter.
If it must be, I shall die
to let it reach its fullest splendour,
at the bottom of the sea.
