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Versailles Palace Celebrates 400th Anniversary, Hosts King Charles III for State Dinner 

People visit the Hall of Mirrors inside the Palace of Versailles during a press visit on the occasion of the opening of the space dedicated to the history of the construction of the Chateau of Versailles, in Versailles, near Paris, France, 14 September 2023. (EPA)
People visit the Hall of Mirrors inside the Palace of Versailles during a press visit on the occasion of the opening of the space dedicated to the history of the construction of the Chateau of Versailles, in Versailles, near Paris, France, 14 September 2023. (EPA)
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Versailles Palace Celebrates 400th Anniversary, Hosts King Charles III for State Dinner 

People visit the Hall of Mirrors inside the Palace of Versailles during a press visit on the occasion of the opening of the space dedicated to the history of the construction of the Chateau of Versailles, in Versailles, near Paris, France, 14 September 2023. (EPA)
People visit the Hall of Mirrors inside the Palace of Versailles during a press visit on the occasion of the opening of the space dedicated to the history of the construction of the Chateau of Versailles, in Versailles, near Paris, France, 14 September 2023. (EPA)

France is rolling out the red carpet for King Charles III's state visit at one of its most magnificent and emblematic monuments: the Palace of Versailles, which celebrates its 400th anniversary.

Charles and Queen Camilla's three-day trip to Paris and Bordeaux, starting Wednesday, includes a grand dinner at Versailles in the presence of over 150 guests in the Hall of Mirrors.

It comes as the Palace of Versailles just opened to the public the gallery that retraces its history, from its creation as a modest hunting lodge in 1623 to last century's key diplomatic events — including the visits of Charles’ predecessors.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said Wednesday's dinner echoes the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1972, when she was greeted at the Palace by President Georges Pompidou. King Charles liked the idea of following in his mother’s footsteps, according to Macron's office.

Elizabeth II also visited the palace in 1958 and 10 years before, when she was not yet a Queen.

Catherine Pégard, president of the Palace of Versailles, praised the "never-ending story" of the palace that "includes visits from French children who come to Versailles with their classes, as well as visits from His Majesty the King of England or tourists who arrive from Asia and are less familiar with the history."

"And we have a story to tell each one of them," she told the Associated Press.

Usually filled with a chaotic crowd of photo-snapping tourists from across the world, the Hall of Mirrors will be closed to visitors Wednesday to get prepared for the royal banquet. No details have been provided about the menu yet, but the French presidency said it will be an opportunity to showcase France's cultural and gastronomical excellence.

Charles' visit will make one more date in the Palace's long history starting from King Louis XIII, to the French revolution and all the way to modern times that is being presented on its ground floor into the newly opened Gallery of the History of the Palace.

The gallery has 11 rooms, each thematic and largely chronological, presenting over 120 works aimed at providing visitors from across the world an immediate understanding of the complex history of the palace.

It brings together recently acquired works alongside paintings and art pieces that for many years had gone unseen as they’d been in reserve and others that are now repositioned and better enhanced.

Laurent Salomé, director of the National Museum of the Palace of Versailles and Trianon, said the exhibit features a number of masterpieces.

"Our intention was to create a first great moment of pleasure for visitors. First of all, because they’ve traveled a lot. For a long time, they’ve dreamed of Versailles. We didn’t want to give them a boring lesson to start their visit," he said.

Some pieces of work come from the original version of the palace and its gardens under its great builder Louis XIV, who decided to expand his father’s hunting lodge.

It's "a history made by not just one monarch, it’s also an enormous team of artists — and the greatest artists. A good thing about absolute monarchy is to be able to gather all the best people at the same place," Salomé stressed.

Today the Palace contains 2,300 rooms spread over 63,154 square meters (679,784 square feet).

The gallery of history also provides an occasion to discover anecdotes about the Palace’s life — like some panels of the "Chinese chamber" of Queen Marie Leszczynska, Louis XV's wife, that she in part painted herself.

In the last rooms, visitors can see the famous desk where the 1919 Treaty of Versailles was signed that formally ended World War I, as well as photos and video archives of heads of states and royalties honored at the Palace during the 20th century.

"The idea is also to show that there is a gradual transformation of the Chateau de Versailles, which has always remained alive through the centuries, from its creation to the present day," Salomé said.

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Japanese Poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, Master of Modern Free Verse, Dies at 92

Shuntaro Tanikawa, a Japanese poet and translator, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, on May 25, 2022. (AP)
Shuntaro Tanikawa, a Japanese poet and translator, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, on May 25, 2022. (AP)
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Japanese Poet Shuntaro Tanikawa, Master of Modern Free Verse, Dies at 92

Shuntaro Tanikawa, a Japanese poet and translator, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, on May 25, 2022. (AP)
Shuntaro Tanikawa, a Japanese poet and translator, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Tokyo, on May 25, 2022. (AP)

Shuntaro Tanikawa, who pioneered modern Japanese poetry, poignant but conversational in its divergence from haiku and other traditions, has died. He was 92.

Tanikawa, who translated the "Peanuts" comic strip and penned the lyrics for the theme song of the animation series "Astro Boy," died Nov. 13, his son Kensaku Tanikawa said Tuesday. He said his father died at a Tokyo hospital due to old age.

Shuntaro Tanikawa stunned the literary world with his 1952 debut "Two Billion Light Years of Solitude," a bold look at the cosmic in daily life, sensual, vivid but simple in its use of everyday language. Written before Gabriel García Márquez’ "One Hundred Years of Solitude," it became a bestseller.

Tanikawa’s "Kotoba Asobi Uta," or "Word Play Songs," is a rhythmical experiment in juxtaposing words that sound similar, such as "kappa," a mythical animal and "rappa," a horn, that makes for a joyful singsong compilation, filled with alliterations and onomatopoeia.

"For me, the Japanese language is the ground. Like a plant, I place my roots, drink in the nutrients of the Japanese language, sprouting leaves, flowers and bearing fruit," he said in a 2022 interview with The Associated Press at his Tokyo home.

Tanikawa explored the poetic, not only in the repetitive music of the spoken word but also the magic hidden in little things.

One of his works is titled, "I wanted to talk to you in the kitchen in the middle of the night."

"In the past, there was something about it being a job, being commissioned. Now, I can write as I want," he said.

In every work Tanikawa tackled, including the script for Kon Ichikawa’s "Tokyo Olympiad," a documentary film of the 1964 Tokyo Games, the respectful love for the beauty of the Japanese language resonates.

He also translated Mother Goose, Maurice Sendak and Leo Lionni. Tanikawa has in turn been widely translated, including English, Chinese and various European languages.

Some of his works were made into picture books for children, and they are often featured in Japanese school textbooks. He also incorporated Japanese words derived from foreign origins into his poems like Coca-Cola.

In his prose poem with that title, in which a boy is opening a Coke can, he wrote: "If, for instance, he saw the infinite universe that started or ended at the tip of his can, he was totally unaware of it. One might be able to opine that he named every bit of the unknown about to swallow him with all the vocabulary he could muster, which included his future vocabulary that was yet dormant in his subconscious."

In his debut poem that catapulted him to stardom, he is more sparse:

"Because the universe goes on expanding, we are all uneasy. With the chill of two billion light-years of solitude, I suddenly sneezed," is the way the poem ends, as translated by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura.

When asked about it, Tanikawa acknowledged it felt as though someone else had written it, but noted he still thought it was a good poem.

"Tanikawa’s poetry reflects a metaphysical and quasi-religious attitude toward experience. In simple, spare language, he sketches profound ideas and emotional truths," according to the Poetry Foundation, a US literary organization.

Tanikawa was born in 1931, a son of philosopher Tetsuzo Tanikawa, and began writing poetry in his teens, circulating with the famous poets of that era, like Makoto Ooka and Shuji Terayama.

He said he used to think poems descended like an inspiration from the heavens. But, as he grew older, he felt the poems welling up from the ground.

In person, Tanikawa was friendly and unassuming, often reading in public with other poets. He never seemed to take himself too seriously but used to confess his one regret in life was never finishing his education, having dropped out amid stardom at a young age.

His relative isolation from the bleakly serious scholarly poetry scene of postwar Japan likely helped him take his free-verse approach that went on to innovate and define Japanese contemporary poetics.

Tanikawa said he wasn’t afraid of death, implying he perhaps meant to write a poem about that experience, too.

"I am more curious about where I will go when I die. It’s a different world, right? Of course, I don’t want pain. I don’t want to die after major surgery or anything. I just want to die, all of a sudden," he said.

He is survived by his son, musician Kensaku Tanikawa and daughter Shino and several grandchildren. Funeral services were held privately with family and friends. A farewell event in his honor is being planned, Kensaku Tanikawa said.

"As they did with all of you, Shuntaro’s poems stunned and moved me, making me chuckle or shed a tear. Wasn’t it all so fun?" he said. "His poems are with you forever."