Jacques Jasmin

Who was Jacques Jasmin?

Jansemin was an Occitan poet.

He was born at Agen, his family name being Boé. His father, who was a tailor, had a certain facility for making doggerel verses, which he sang or recited at fairs and such-like popular gatherings; and Jacques, who generally accompanied him, was thus early familiarized with the part which he later so successfully filled himself. At 16 he found employment at a hairdressers shop and subsequently started a similar business of his own on the Gravier at Agen.

In 1825 he published his first volume of Papillotos, containing poems in French, and in the familiar Agen variety of Occitan language - the popular speech of the working classes in which he was to achieve all his literary triumphs. Jasmin was the most famous forerunner in Provençal literature of Frédéric Mistral and the Félibrige. His influence in rehabilitating, for literary purposes, his native dialect, was particularly exercised in the public recitals of his poems to which he devoted himself. His poetic gift, and his flexible voice and action, fitted him admirably for this double role of troubadour and jongleur.