Jacques Jasmin

Jacques Jasmin (born March 6, 1798, Agen, Fr.—died Oct 4, 1864, Agen) was a French dialect poet who achieved popular fame for his touching verse portraits of humble people and places.

His father was a poor tailor, and Jasmin himself spent most of his life as a barber and wigmaker in his native part of southern France. His first collection of poems, Charivari (1825; “Tin-Kettle Music”), was followed, beginning in 1835, by 4 volumes of Papillotos (“Curlpapers”); in addition to a few poems written cautiously in French, they contained his better works, written in his native dialect, la langue d’oc. Included in this collection was a poem of great pathos—“L’Abuglo de Castel-Culié” (“The Blind Girl of Casterculier”)—which captured the public imagination after Jasmin began public readings and singings in Toulouse and Bordeaux. Some of his major poems include “Souvenirs” (1835), “Franconnette” (1840), “Martha la folle” (1844; “Martha the Simple”), and “Les Deux Frères jumeaux” (1845; “The Twin Brothers”).