The quest for truth

See what you shall do[ii]

Anjela Duval spent her life meditating. Those who have read her attentively or who have had the good fortune to spend time with her cannot doubt this. While she was born in 1905, she began writing only during the 1960's. During the first fifty-five years of her life, besides cultivating her land and tending to her parents, she patiently developed her wisdom. Her concept of life was made up of three ideals : love of nature, spirituality and love of her people.

You know well Lord
Which Goals I attempt
To reach because it is you
Who has shown me
Faith. Country. The Soil of the Country.[iii]

Together these three ideals formed a logical and powerful system. Yet, to fully understand Duval, we must study them one by one.

Love of nature

Genetic engineering has progressed very rapidly since Anjela Duval's death in 1981. It is so far reaching that humans can now modify living nature. scientists can give children to sterile parents, can create genetically modified plants and animals, and can even clone an animal in a laboratory using one of its cells, such as was the case for the sheep Dolly in 1997… Advances in biotechnology represent progress for medical research : they should make it possible to produce vaccines against terrible illnesses such as hepatitis B, AIDS or tuberculosis, and to discover the genes responsible for certain diseases, and soon perhaps to modify these genes in order to eradicate the diseases all together. Biotechnologies are also useful on an economic level : they make it possible to produce increasingly resistant livestock and plants. Yet all these techniques also pose serious ethical dilemmas : how far can humanity go in modifying nature ? What limits does society wish to set regarding interventions on living creatures ?

Twenty years ago it was impossible to foretell what genetic engineering can do today. Hence Duval could not speak of this. Yet the poets's reflections on nature can help us to forge our own opinion concerning these contemporary problems. For her, nature is "a gift from God" ; a gift that we can make use of, provided we respect it and help it to grow. According to Duval, as part of nature, human beings must remain humble and modest. Her image of the world is entirely opposite from that held by researchers and the economic forces that support them. Like Descartes, they believe that humans must "make themselves the masters and possessors of nature"[iv]. Here are two entirely opposite modes of thought. Where is the truth ? In Duval's humility and her respect for nature ? Or in the vain confidence that Descartes places in humanity ? This is difficult to answer. Nevertheless, it is time to launch a vast debate about these questions. Advances in genetic research represent one of the most complex and most important issues of the emerging XXI^st Century. And Duval offers a clear-cut point of view, one that might be taken into account when making the necessary decisions, whatever they may be.

Anjela Duval believed that nature and the earth produce wealth only in relation to what humans give them. In this sense we can say that she was an "ecologist" before her time. In her poems about struggle, as well as in her criticism against the destruction of nature, she anticipated some of the ecological disasters that threaten humanity today. In "Sahara ?" she evokes the issue of deforestation and of climatic changes that are of concern today.

Like a painting of the World's end
The flat plain in the horizon
So many giant cadavers
Their limbs scattered, their sap bleeding
The huge trees decapitated
(Oh the murder of the Innocents[v]!)

She did not see such devastation as inevitable, rather she considered man to be responsible…

So stupid, so cruel and so egotistical
With all his science
Lacking any conscience
And filled with boundless arrogance[vi]

Similarly, concerning the question of water, Duval thought that the Breton farmers' new methods of production were dangerous :

"I will never accept the treatment inflicted upon these lands today. Nowadays, we exhaust the earth by using so much fertilizer. I also use some, but as little as possible. My compost heap is not sufficient. If I were younger I would be tempted to use biological agriculture. (…) I see most producers of cauliflowers and potatoes as poisonous. They use too much fertilizers[vii]."

These words are perhaps no different from those we hear today in Brittany and elsewhere, now that the water is polluted and that it seems clear to everyone that we have gone too far down the path towards maximizing production. However, Duval spoke in these terms as early as 1970! Moreover, she did not blame the farmers as much as she did the banks and multinational corporations that encourage them to increase their productivity. She blamed "big capital, the corrupter, the exploiter"[viii].

Thirty years later, on top of their tractors or in their huge green houses, farmers are no longer in direct contact with the earth as their ancestors were, or as Duval was on her farm. We mentioned earlier that a lamb was made from a sheep without any prior mating process ; but for a long time now we have been able to industrially produce vegetables without any earth at all… Little by little, humanity is distancing itself from "natural" life, and becoming a sort of god capable of creating and modifying life in laboratories. Duval, by contrast, felt that she was only one small part of infinite cosmic nature. She lived in physical proximity to the earth : "the earth is like my second body", she often said. This was part of her spirituality. For example, in "Bennozh dit", she told God :

You give the Earth, the rain and the heat.
I fertilize, sow, weed, harvest[ix].

Spirituality

It is commonplace to say that our society is presently in search of meaning. Yesterday, religious or political ideologies, family and school offered or imposed clear models. Today, and for some time now, in western societies, religions have been declining ; political ideals are disappearing, especially since the fall of the Berlin wall ; the family has been shaken by the events of 1968. The old patriarchal model has fallen apart and there is no other dominant model. Last of all, the school system is in a state of crisis… Consequently, it is becoming more and more difficult to understand the world and to know how to act "for good" in life. There are no more shared references. Each of us tries to do as he can on his own, without any certainty that he is acting as he should. Anjela Duval clearly perceived these changes, especially on the religious level. But she herself did not experience them. Her intense, immense and simple spirituality came from her popular Breton catholic faith. It was characterized by the tribute paid to the dead and to the national saints[x]. Faith lent meaning to her life and to all that she saw around her. For example, when the trees were ablaze with autumn colors, in her eyes it was because God had given…

Thousands of bits and pieces
Of his royal mantle
To dress the trees
With gold and purple[xi]

She saw God in everything and spoke to him in the same manner as she did to the old national saints or to the dead. In fact, many of her poems were true prayers.

Faith sometimes leads to extremism. But this is rare in Brittany, where the Gospel has always been interpreted as a message of peace, and where political traditions are rather pacifist. Although the practice of Catholicism has greatly diminished in Brittany, one wonders whether the reminiscence of Catholicism does not contribute to the fact that Bretons are half as likely as other French citizens to vote for the extreme right. At any rate, Anjela Duval's faith was very strong, yet peace-loving and open to other forms of spirituality such as Islam[xii] and Buddhism[xiii]. Here again she exhibits a very modern form of behavior, without falling into the traps one finds here and there. Indeed, many people today are searching for some form of spirituality. Often they seek to quench their thirst for spirituality by combining elements from different traditions. Unfortunately, sects sometimes take advantage of such quests and attempt to manipulate the most fragile minds. Thanks to her numerous readings Duval had a good knowledge of the druidism practiced by her ancestors, and even of Buddhism, as well as many other beliefs. Everything touched her. Yet she would never have become a victim of sects precisely because the foundations of the simple faith that her parents had passed on to her were so strong.

Duval's spirituality was not made up simply of a popular catholic faith informed by her readings about various other systems of belief. She was an authentic mystic, who marveled at life and communed with all living creatures, however small and ugly.

Ah ! How heedful I am at each step

Heedful of crushing, of smashing

Along the path or through the field

Tiny humble creatures beneath my foot :

The green beetle crouched in the moss,

The minute ant carrying

With great effort and ingenuity

The short-straw to her anthill.

Pretty little flowers half-hidden in the grass,

Trying to open their heart to the Sun[xiv].

It seems to me that this was not properly understood by all her readers. She did not revel in sentimentality, but felt close and fraternal towards all living things because she felt equal to them, neither superior nor inferior. In this sense her spirituality was similar to that of Buddhists. She did not however spend all her love on plants and animals. She was not a pessimist as far as humanity is concerned. Her love was first directed towards the whole of humanity. She felt particularly empathetic towards her "brothers in sorrow", the peasants, and towards her people, the Bretons.

Patriotism

There is nothing new in stating that we are living in a world increasingly unified, even though differences between various groups remain important. This unification – some say, uniformization – is a product simultaneously of progress in the communication technologies and of the continual acceleration of economic exchange. Yet at the same time as this movement toward uniformity develops, everywhere we see men and women anxiously isolating themselves. The danger of a "balkanization" of the world exists and is often evoked. Duval would not have wished the Bretons to become closed in and isolated. Devoted to her natal territory, it appears that she seldom left her farm and Brittany. She mentions this in one of her poems :

I have never sucked another sap

Nor set foot on other soil

Than yours my own Brittany[xv]

Nevertheless, she was absolutely not closed to the outside world. When she wrote that "he who remains in his house dislikes the wind", she meant that it is not good to remain closed in upon oneself. Her numerous visitors were impressed by her knowledge about the world. She was self-taught and had great intellectual curiosity : she devoured any book, newspaper or magazine she happened to fall upon. Besides this she regularly listened to the radio. It was surprising to see how well informed she was about events and problems concerning the entire planet. Many of her poems illustrate how preoccupied she was with the misfortunes of the world. For example "Darbodoù"[xvi] or "Lagad an heol" in which she complained in the following terms :

I saw people dying of cold.

I saw people dying of hunger.

Saw people dying in despair.

Saw people killing people, brothers striking each other.

Saw people oppressed.

Saw a great leader falling under a madman’s bullets.

Saw I don’t know how many people weeping[xvii].

If Duval was not tempted by self-absorption, neither was she in favor of the negation of self. Among her numerous visitors, many Bretons were embarrassed by their language. To justify the fact that they spoke in French, they would say, using a typical expression of the time, "I don't speak Breton, but I understand it". She would answer them mockingly : "Yes, like my dogs : they don't speak Breton either, but they understand it!". She was enraged to see Bretons abandoning their language…

Why would you speak a tongue foreign

To your Country, to your Children ?

It's a crime to break the golden chain

Our Honor resides therein[xviii].

One of Duval's great lessons of humanity, was her struggle against self-denial, not only in thought but also in action. She never ceased to fight her whole life long.