Paul Eluard - poems - PoemHunter.Com · Like André Breton, Aragon, Péret, Soupault and other...

Classic Poetry Series

Paul Eluard- poems -

Publication Date:2004

Publisher:Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive

Paul Eluard(14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952) Paul Éluard, pseudonym of Eugène Grindel (born Dec. 14, 1895, Saint-Denis,Paris, Fr.—died Nov. 18, 1952, Charenton-le-Pont), French poet, one of thefounders of the Surrealist movement with Louis Aragon and André Breton amongothers and one of the important lyrical poets of the 20th century. Éluard rejected later Surrealism and joined the French Communist Party. Many ofhis works reflect the major events of the century, such as the World Wars, theResistance against the Nazis, and the political and social ideals of the 20th-century. I was born to know you To give you your name Freedom. (in Poèsie et Vérité, 1942) Paul Éluard came from a lower-middle-class background. He was born EugèneÉmile Paul Grindel in Saint-Denis, Paris, the son of a bookkeeper, whose wifehelped out with the household bills by dressmaking. Éluard became interested inpoetry in his youth in Clavadel, a Swiss sanatorium, where he was sent fortreatment of tuberculosis. When he returned to France, he joined the army andwas badly injured by gas. His first noteworthy volume of poetry was Le Devoir etl'Inquiétude (1917). During a leave from the service in 1917, Éluard married a Russian woman,Helena Diakonova, known as Gala, whom he had met in Clavadel. Gala inspiredseveral of Éluard's poems published in Capitale de la douleur (1926, Capital ofPain), which established his reputation as a poet. It includes some of his mostfamous love poems, such as 'L'Amoureuse' (Woman in Love) and 'La Courbe detes yeaux' (The Curve of Your Eyes). Later its poems punctuated Jean-LucGodard's film Alphaville (1965), in which the existential secret agent, LemmyCaution, battles with a copy of this "codebook" against a totalitarian regime runby a computer Alpha 60. Poetry is the key to love and freedom. Éluard hadcompiled the book during the period, when Gala had a liaison with the artist MaxErnst. Godard chose the work partly because its title stood for the technocraticAlphaville itself.

1www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive

Like André Breton, Aragon, Péret, Soupault and other intellectuals, Éluardemerged from the war disgusted with commonly accepted values of thebourgeois society. He was briefly involved with the Dada movement, whichdeclined in the 1920s as many of its proponents joined the Surrealists. Éluard'searly statement in verse of surrealist theories was Les Nécessités de la vie et lesconséquences des rêves (1921). With the painter Max Ernst, who had moved toParis in 1922, Éluard worked on a cycle entitled Les Malheurs des Immortels, aseries of pictures made of scraps of illustrations cut out from old books. In 1924 Éluard disappeared mysteriously. Rumours of his death were widelycirculated and finally accepted as true. After seven months he surfaced andexplained that he had been on a journey from Marseilles to Tahiti, Indonesia, andCeylon. This absence from the Parisian scene was later connected with the loss ofhis wife Gala to the surrealist artist Salvador Dali, although their relationshipstarted much later. Between 1921 and 1924 Gala had an affair with Max Ernst.He painted painted several portraits of her. Louise Straus, whom Ernst hadmarried in 1918, described Gala as "that Russian female... that slithering,glittering creature with dark falling hair, vaguely oriental and luminant black eyesand small delicate bones, who had to remind one of a panther." Legally Éluardand Gala were divorced in 1932. They had one daughter, Cécile. Freud's theory of the unconscious influenced deeply avant-garde writers;especially the technique of automatic writing was experimented as a method toliberate subconscious from the straitjacket of reason. However, Éluard practicedautomatic writing very little, but it was one of Breton's favorite subjects. From1924 to 1938 Éluard was a central member of the surrealist group. In 1933 hewas expelled from the Communist Party partly due to an article published in LeSurréalisme au service de la révolution, in which Ferdinand Alquié denounced"the wind of cretinization blowing from the U S S R ". Éluard cooperated in 1930 with Breton in L'Immaculate conception, a series ofpoems in prose, in which they entered into communication with the vegetativelife of the foetus and simulated demented states. "Of all the ways the sunflowerhas of loving the light, regret is the loveliest on the sundial. Crossbones,crosswords, volumes and volumes of ignorance and knowledge. The doe,between bounds, likes to look at me. I keep her company in the glade. I fallslowly from the heights, as yet I weigh only what minus a hundred thousandyards will weigh..." Éluard married in 1934 Maria Benz (1906-1946), known as Nusch; earlier shehad been a hypnotist's stooge in a circus and a small-time actress and model.Nusch did not only inspire some of Éluard's most tender love poems, but she was


also a muse and model for the photographer Man Ray and Pablo Picasso, and fora time, she was the artist's mistress. Soon after the marriage, Éluard publishedwith Man Ray a slim volume entitled Facile (1935). Nusch participated in thecreation of the book, which included Éluard's love lyrics and eleven photographsNusch's body. When Nicole Boulestreau wrote an article on the book, she coinedthe term photopoème: "In the photopoem, meaning progresses in accordancewith the reciprocity of writing and figures: reading becomes interwoven throughalternating restitchings of the signifier into text and image." (Le PhotopoèmeFacile: Un Noveau Livre dans les années 30, Le Livre surréaliste: Mélusine IV,1982) In the late 1930s Éluard abandoned Surrealistic experimentations, partly as aresult of his concern over the Spanish Civil War. After he renewed his affiliationwith the Communist Party, Breton broke with him. During WW II, Éluard servedin the French army and in the Communist Resistance. To avoid the GestapoÉluard and Nusch constantly changed addresses. His poems Éluard publishedunder such pseudonyms as Jean du Hault and Maurice Hervent. Éluard's most famous works from these years, 'Liberté' and 'Rendez-vousAllemand', were spread throughout France. Nusch died unexpectedly in 1946,she suffered a stroke and collapsed in the street. Éluard's third wife wasDominique Laure, to whom he dedicated the collection Le Phénix (1951). Picasso,who once had potrayed Éluard as a transvestite, said that he is not going tohonor him again by going to bed with his wife. After the war Éluard was active in the international communist movement in thecultural field. He traveled in Britain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Mexico, andRussia, but not the United States, because he was refused a visa as aCommunist. Éluard's idealism, passion for peace, and inability to see the realityof the Soviet Union, led the poet to admire Stalin. With Picasso he took part in1948 in the World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace in Wroclaw, Poland. Éluardsaw poetry as an action capable of arousing awareness in his readers, andidentified with the leftist struggle for political, social and sexual liberation. "Somuch fonfusion to stay so pure," wrote Salvador Dali on Éluard in his diary (Diaryof Genius, 1966). Éluard published over seventy books, including poetry, literary and politicalworks, and poetic texts dedicated to such painters as Max Ernst and PabloPicasso. Painting, like poetry, was for Éluard destined to disseminate truthbelonging to both the real and the imaginary. The mission of poetry was to renewlanguage in order to effect radical changes in all areas of human life, "poetry is aperpetual struggle, life's very principle, the queen of unrest." ('Poetry's


Evidence', This Quarter; Surrealist Number, September 1932.) In Éluard's lovelyrics woman performs as a liberating force. Love, to Éluard, was a kind ofrevolution of the spirit. In 'L'amoureuse' Éluard exemplified the effects of love,which unites one soul to another. Samuel Beckett, who translated the work intoEnglish, did not actually feel close to the Surrealists, but Éluard and Breton wereamong his friends. Among Éluard's best-known later works are Poésie ininterrompue (1946) andPoèmes politiques (1948). Éluard died of a heart condition on November 18,1952 in Charenton-le-Pont. At his funeral, organized by the Party, Picasso wasseated next to Dominique. "In fact," she said later, "it was Éluard who was afriend to Picasso, and the other way around only to the extent that Picasso wascapable of friendship."


‘she Looks Into Me…’ She looks into meThe unknowing heartTo see if I loveShe has confidence she forgetsUnder the clouds of her eyelidsHer head falls asleep in my handsWhere are weTogether inseparableAlive aliveHe alive she aliveAnd my head rolls through her dreams. Paul Eluard


‘you Rise The Water Unfolds’ You rise the water unfoldsYou sleep the water flowers You are water ploughed from its depthsYou are earth that takes rootAnd in which all is grounded You make bubbles of silence in the desert of soundYou sing nocturnal hymns on the arcs of the rainbowYou are everywhere you abolish the roads You sacrifice timeTo the eternal youth of an exact flameThat veils Nature to reproduce her Woman you show the world a body forever the sameYours You are its likeness. Paul Eluard


A Single Smile A single smile disputesEach star with the gathering nightA single smile for us both And the blue of your joyful eyesAgainst the mass of nightFinding its flame in my eyes I have seen by needing to knowThe deep night create the dayWith no change in our appearance. Paul Eluard


Absence I speak to you over citiesI speak to you over plainsMy mouth is against your earThe two sides of the walls facemy voice which acknowledges you.I speak to you of eternity.O cities memories of citiescities draped with our desirescities early and latecities strong cities intimatestripped of all their makerstheir thinkers their phantomsLandscape ruled by emeraldlive living ever-livingthe wheat of the sky on our earthnourishes my voice I dream and cryI laugh and dream between the flamesbetween the clusters of sunlightAnd over my body your body extendsthe layer of its clear mirror. Paul Eluard


Air Vif I looked in front of meIn the crowd I saw youAmong the wheat I saw youBeneath a tree I saw you At the end of my journeysIn the depths of my tormentAt the corner of every smileEmerging from water and fire Summer and winter I saw youAll through my house I saw youIn my arms I saw youIn my dreams I saw you I will never leave you. Paul Eluard


As Far As My Eye Can See In My Body’s Senses All the trees all their branches all of their leavesThe grass at the foot of the rocks and the houses en masseFar off the sea that your eye bathesThese images of day after dayThe vices the virtues so imperfectThe transparency of men passing among them by chanceAnd passing women breathed by your elegant obstinaciesYour obsessions in a heart of lead on virgin lipsThe vices the virtues so imperfectThe likeness of looks of permission with eyes you conquerThe confusion of bodies wearinesses ardoursThe imitation of words attitudes ideasThe vices the virtues so imperfect Love is man incomplete Paul Eluard


At The Window I have not always had this certainty, this pessimism which reassures the bestamong us. There wasa time when my friends laughed at me. I was not the master of my words. Acertain indifference, Ihave not always known well what I wanted to say, but most often it was becauseI had nothing tosay. The necessity of speaking and the desire not to be heard. My life hangingonly by a thread. There was a time when I seemed to understand nothing. My chains floated onthe water. All my desires are born of my dreams. And I have proven my love with words. Towhat fantasticcreatures have I entrusted myself, in what dolorous and ravishing world has myimaginationenclosed me? I am sure of having been loved in the most mysterious of domains,my own. Thelanguage of my love does not belong to human language, my human body doesnot touch the fleshof my love. My amorous imagination has always been constant and high enoughso that nothingcould attempt to convince me of error. Paul Eluard


Barely Disfigured Adieu TristesseBonjour TristesseFarewell SadnessHello SadnessYou are inscribed in the lines on the ceilingYou are inscribed in the eyes that I loveYou are not poverty absolutelySince the poorest of lips denounce youAh with a smileBonjour TristesseLove of kind bodiesPower of loveFrom which kindness risesLike a bodiless monsterUnattached head Sadness beautiful face. Paul Eluard


Certitude If I speak it’s to hear you more clearlyIf I hear you I’m sure to understand you If you smile it’s the better to enter meIf you smile I will see the world entire If I embrace you it’s to widen myselfIf we live everything will turn to joy If I leave you we’ll remember each otherIn leaving you we’ll find each other again. Paul Eluard


Curfew What else could we do, for the doors were guarded,What else could we do, for they had imprisoned us,What else could we do, for the streets were forbidden us,What else could we do, for the town was asleep?What else could we do, for she hungered and thirsted,What else could we do, for we were defenceless,What else could we do, for night had descended,What else could we do, for we were in love? Paul Eluard


Easy Easy and beautiful underyour eyelidsAs the meeting of pleasureDance and the restI spoke the fever The best reason for fireThat you might be pale and luminousA thousand fruitful posesA thousand ravaged embracesRepeated move to erase themselvesYou grow dark you unveil yourselfA mask youcontrol itIt deeply resembles youAnd you seem nothing but lovelier nakedNaked in shadow and dazzlingly nakedLike a sky shivering with flashes of lightningYou reveal yourself to youTo reveal yourself to others Paul Eluard


Ecstasy I am in front of this feminine landLike a child in front of the fireSmiling vaguely with tears in my eyesIn front of this land where all moves in meWhere mirrors mist where mirrors clearReflecting two nude bodies season on season I’ve so many reasons to lose myselfOn this road-less earth under horizon-less skiesGood reasons I ignored yesterdayAnd I’ll never ever forgetGood keys of gazes keys their own daughtersin front of this land where nature is mine In front of the fire the first fireGood mistress reasonIdentified starOn earth under sky in and out of my heartSecond bud first green leafThat the sea covers with sailsAnd the sun finally coming to us I am in front of this feminine landLike a branch in the fire. Paul Eluard


Even When We Sleep Even when we sleep we watch over each otherAnd this love heavier than a lake’s ripe fruitWithout laughter or tears lasts foreverOne day after another one night after us. Paul Eluard


Fertile Eyes Fertile EyesNo one can know me moreMore than you know me Your eyes in which we sleepThe two of themHave cast a spell on my male orbsGreater than worldly nights Your eyes where I voyageHave given the road-signsDirections detached from the earth In your eyes those that show usOur infinite solitudeIs no more than they think exists No one can know me moreMore than you know me. Paul Eluard


Five Haiku The windUndecidedRolls a cigarette of air The mute girl talks:It is art's imperfection.This impenetrable speech. The motor car is truly launched:Four martyrs' headsRoll under the wheels. Ah! a thousand flames, a fire,The light, a shadow!The sun is following me. A feather gives to a hatA touch of lightness:The chimney smokes. Paul Eluard


Head Against The Walls There were only a few of themIn all the earthEach one thought he was aloneThey sang, they were rightTo singBut they sang the way you sack a cityThe way you kill yourself. Frayed moist nightShall we endure youLongerShall we not shakeYour cloacal evidenceWe shall not wait for a morningMade to measureWe wanted to see in other people's eyesTheir nights of love exhaustedThey dream only of dyingTheir lovely flesh forgottenBees caught in their honeyThey are ignorant of lifeAnd we suffer everywhereRed roofs dissolve under the tongueDog days in the full bedsCome, empty your sacks of fresh bloodThere is still a shadow here A shred of imbecile thereIn the wind their masks, their cast-offsIn lead their traps, their chainsAnd their prudent blind-men's gesturesThere is fire under rocksIf you put out the fireBe careful we haveDespite the night it breedsMore strength than the bellyOf your wives and sistersAnd we will reproduceWithout them but by ax strokes


In your prisons Torrents of stone labors of foamWhere eyes float without rancorJust eyes without hopeThat know youAnd that you should have put outRather than ignore With a safety pin quicker than your gibbetsWe shall take our booty where we want it to be Paul Eluard


Hunted A few grains of dust more or lessOn ancient shouldersLocks of weakness on weary foreheadsThis theatre of honey and faded rosesWhere incalcuable fliesReply to the black signs that misery makes to themDespairing girders of a bridgeThrown across spaceThrown across every street and every houseHeavy wandering madnessesThat we shall end by knowing by heartMechanical appetites and uncontrolled dancesThat lead to the regret of hatred Nostalgia of justice Paul Eluard


I Cannot Be Known I cannot be knownBetter than you know me Your eyes in which we sleepWe togetherHave made for my man's gleamA better fate than for the common nights Your eyes in which I travelHave given to signs along the roadsA meaning alien to the earth In your eyes who reveal to usOur endless solitude Are no longer what they thought themselves to be You cannot be knownBetter than I know you. Paul Eluard


I Only Wish To Love You I only wish to love youA storm fills the valleyA fish the river I have made you the size of my solitudeThe whole world to hide inDays and nights to understand To see no more in your eyesThan what I think of youAnd a world in your image And days and nights ruled by your eyelids. Paul Eluard


I Said It To You I said it to you for the cloudsI said it to you for the tree of the seaFor each wave for the birds in the leavesFor the pebbles of soundFor familiar hands For the eye that becomes landscape or faceAnd sleep returns it the heaven of its colourFor all that night drankFor the network of roadsFor the open window for a bare foreheadI said it to you for your thoughts for your words Every caress every trust survives. Paul Eluard


In A New Night Woman I’ve lived withWoman I live withWoman I’ll live withAlways the sameYou need a red cloakRed gloves a red maskAnd dark stockingsThe reasons the proofsOf seeing you quite nakedNudity pure O ready finery Breasts O my heart Paul Eluard


It’s The Sweet Law Of Men It’s the sweet law of menThey make wine from grapesThey make fire from coalThey make men from kisses It’s the true law of menKept intact despitethe misery and wardespite danger of death It’s the warm law of menTo change water to lightDream to realityEnemies to friends A law old and newThat perfects itselfFrom the child’s heart’s depthsTo reason’s heights. Paul Eluard


La Courbe De Tes Yeux La courbe de tes yeux fait le tour de mon coeur,Un rond de danse et de douceur,Auréole du temps, berceau nocturne et sûr,Et si je ne sais plus tout ce que j'ai vécuC'est que tes yeux ne m'ont pas toujours vu.Feuilles de jour et mousse de rosée,Roseaux du vent, sourires parfumés,Ailes couvrant le monde de lumière,Bateaux chargés du ciel et de la mer,Chasseurs des bruits et sources de couleurs,Parfums éclos d'une couvée d'auroresQui gît toujours sur la paille des astres,Comme le jour dépend de l'innocenceLe monde entier dépend de tes yeux pursEt tout mon sang coule dans leurs regards. Paul Eluard


Lady Love She is standing on my eyelidsAnd her hair is in my hairShe has the color of my eyeShe has the body of my handIn my shade she is engulfedAs a stone against the sky She will never close her eyesAnd she does not let me sleepAnd her dreams in the bright dayMake the suns evaporateAnd me laugh cry and laughSpeak when I have nothing to say Paul Eluard


L'Amoureuse Elle est debour sur mes paupièresEt ses cheveux sont dans les miens,Elle a la forme de mes mains,Elle a la couleur de mes yeux,Elle s'engloutit dan mon ombreComme une pierre sur le ciel. Elle a toujours les yeux ouvertsEt ne me laisse pas dormir.Ses rêves en pleine lumièreFont s'évaporer les soleils,Me font rire, pleurer et rire,Parler sans avoir rien à dire --- (Samuel Beckett's translation)She is standing on my lidsAnd her hair is in my hairShe has the colour of my eyeShe has the body of my handIn my shade she is engulfedAs a stone against the sky She will never close her eyesAnd she does not let me sleepAnd her dreams in the bright dayMake the suns evaporateAnd me laugh cry and laughSpeak when I have nothing to say Paul Eluard


Liberty On my school notebooksOn my desk and on the treesOn the sands of snowI write your name On the pages I have readOn all the white pagesStone, blood, paper or ashI write your name On the images of goldOn the weapons of the warriorsOn the crown of the kingI write your name On the jungle and the desertOn the nest and on the brierOn the echo of my childhoodI write your name On all my scarves of blueOn the moist sunlit swampsOn the living lake of moonlightI write your name On the fields, on the horizonOn the birds’ wingsAnd on the mill of shadowsI write your name On each whiff of daybreakOn the sea, on the boatsOn the demented mountaintopI write your name On the froth of the cloudOn the sweat of the stormOn the dense rain and the flatI write your name


On the flickering figuresOn the bells of colorsOn the natural truthI write your name On the high pathsOn the deployed routesOn the crowd-thronged squareI write your name On the lamp which is litOn the lamp which isn’tOn my reunited thoughtsI write your name On a fruit cut in twoOf my mirror and my chamberOn my bed, an empty shellI write your name On my dog, greathearted and greedyOn his pricked-up earsOn his blundering pawsI write your name On the latch of my doorOn those familiar objectsOn the torrents of a good fireI write your name On the harmony of the fleshOn the faces of my friendsOn each outstretched handI write your name On the window of surprisesOn a pair of expectant lipsIn a state far deeper than silenceI write your name On my crumbled hiding-places


On my sunken lighthousesOn my walls and my ennuiI write your name On abstraction without desireOn naked solitudeOn the marches of deathI write your name And for the want of a wordI renew my lifeFor I was born to know youTo name you Liberty. Paul Eluard


Lovely And Lifelike A face at the end of the dayA cradle in day’s dead leavesA bouquet of naked rainEvery ray of sun hiddenEvery fount of founts in the depths of the waterEvery mirror of mirrors brokenA face in the scales of silenceA pebble among other pebblesFor the leaves last glimmers of dayA face like all the forgotten faces. Paul Eluard


Max Ernst In one corner agile incestTurns round the virginity of a little dressIn one corner sky releasedleaves balls of white on the spines of storm.In one corner bright with all the eyesOne awaits the fish of anguish.In one corner the car of summer’s greenerygloriously motionless forever. In the glow of youthlamps lit too late.The first one shows her breasts that kill the insects that are red Paul Eluard


Nearer To Us Run and run towards deliveranceAnd find and gather everythingDeliverance and richesRun so quickly the thread breaksWith the sound a great bird makesA flag always soared beyond Paul Eluard


Nusch The sentiments apparentThe lightness of approachThe tresses of caresses. Without worry or suspicionYour eyes confide in what they seeSeen by what they gaze at. Confidence of crystalBetween two mirrorsAt night your eyes are lostTo fuse waking to desire. Paul Eluard


Obsession After years of wisdomDuring which the world was transparent as a needleWas it cooing about something else?After having vied with returned favours squandered treasureMore than a red lip with a red tipAnd more than a white leg with a white footWhere then do we think we are? Paul Eluard


Open Door Life is truly kindCome to me, if I go to you it’s a game,The angels of bouquets grant the flowers a change of hue. Paul Eluard


Other Children "Little child of my five sensesand of my tenderness."Let us cradle our loves,We will have good children.Well cared for,We will fear nothing on earth,Happiness, good fortune, prudence,Our loves And this leap from age to age,From the order of a child to that of an old man,Will not diminish us.(Confidence). Paul Eluard


Our Life We’ll not reach the goal one by one but in pairsWe know in pairs we will know all about usWe’ll love everything our children will smileAt the dark history or mourn alone Paul Eluard


Ring Of Peace I have passed the doors of coldnessThe doors of my bitternessTo come and kiss your lips City reduced to a roomWhere the absurd tide of evilleaves a reassuring foam Ring of peace I have only youYou teach me again what it isTo be human when I renounce Knowing whether I have fellow creatures Paul Eluard


Series For the splendour of the day of happinesses in the airTo live the taste of colours easilyTo enjoy loves so as to laughTo open eyes at the final moment She has every willingness. Paul Eluard


Talking Of Power And Love Between all my torments between death and selfBetween my despair and the reason for livingThere is injustice and this evil of menThat I cannot accept there is my anger There are the blood-coloured fighters of SpainThere are the sky-coloured fighters of GreeceThe bread the blood the sky and the right to hopeFor all the innocents who hate evil The light is always close to dyingLife always ready to become earthBut spring is reborn that is never done withA bud lifts from dark and the warmth settles And the warmth will have the right of the selfishTheir atrophied senses will not resistI hear the fire talk lightly of coolnessI hear a man speak what he has not known You who were my flesh’s sensitive conscienceYou I love forever you who made meYou will not tolerate oppression or injuryYou’ll sing in dream of earthly happinessYou’ll dream of freedom and I’ll continue you Paul Eluard


The Absence I speak to you across citiesI speak to you across plains My mouth is upon your pillow Both faces of the walls come meetingMy voice discovering you I speak to you of eternity O cities memories of citiesCities wrapped in our desiresCities come early cities come latelyCities strong and cities secretPlundered of their master's buildersAll their thinkers all their ghosts Fields pattern of emeraldBright living survivingThe harvest of the sky over our earthFeeds my voice I dream and weepI laugh and dream among the flamesAmong the clusters of the sun And over my body your body spreadsThe sheet of it's bright mirror. Paul Eluard


The Beloved She is standing on my eyelidsAnd her hair is wound in mine,She has the form of my hands,She has the colour of my eyes,She is swallowed by my shadowLike a stone against the sky Her eyes are always openAnd will not let me sleep.Her dreams in broad daylightMake the suns evaporateMake me laugh, cry and laugh,Speak with nothing to say Paul Eluard


The Curve Of Your Eyes The curve of your eyes embraces my heartA ring of sweetness and dancehalo of time, sure nocturnal cradle,And if I no longer know all I have lived throughIt’s that your eyes have not always been mine. Leaves of day and moss of dew,Reeds of breeze, smiles perfumed,Wings covering the world of light,Boats charged with sky and sea,Hunters of sound and sources of colour Perfume enclosed by a covey of dawnsthat beds forever on the straw of stars,As the day depends on innocenceThe whole world depends on your pure eyesAnd all my blood flows under their sight. Paul Eluard


The Deaf And Blind Do we reach the sea with clocksIn our pockets, with the noise of the seaIn the sea, or are we the carriersOf a purer and more silent water? The water rubbing against our hands sharpens knives.The warriors have found their weapons in the wavesAnd the sound of their blows is likeThe rocks that smash the boats at night. It is the storm and the thunder. Why not the silenceOf the flood, for we have dreamt within usSpace for the greatest silence and we breatheLike the wind over terrible seas, like the wind That creeps slowly over every horizon. Paul Eluard


The Human Face I. Soon Of all the springtimes of the worldThis one is the ugliestOf all of my ways of beingTo be trusting is the best Grass pushes up snowLike the stone of a tombBut I sleep within the stormAnd awaken eyes bright Slowness, brief time endsWhere all streets must passThrough my innermost recessesSo that I would meet someone I don’t listen to monstersI know them and all that they sayI see only beautiful facesGood faces, sure of themselvesCertain soon to ruin their masters II. The women’s role As they sing, the maids dash forwardTo tidy up the killing fieldsWell-powdered girls, quickly to their knees Their hands -- reaching for the fresh air --Are blue like never beforeWhat a glorious day! Look at their hands, the deadLook at their liquid eyes This is the toilet of transienceThe final toilet of lifeStones sink and disappear


In the vast, primal watersThe final toilet of time Hardly a memory remainsthe dried-up well of virtueIn the long, oppressive absencesOne surrenders to tender fleshUnder the spell of weakness III. As deep as the silence As deep as the silenceOf a corpse under groundWith nothing but darkness in mind As dull and deafAs autumn by the pondCovered with stale shame Poison, deprived of its flowerAnd of its golden beastsout its night onto man IV. Patience You, my patient oneMy patienceMy parentHead held high and proudlyOrgan of the sluggish nightBow downConcealing all of heavenAnd its favorPrepare for vengeanceA bed where I'll be born V. First march, the voice of another Laughing at sky and planetsDrunk with their confidenceThe wise men wish for sonsAnd for sons from their sons


Until they all perish in vainTime burdens only foolsWhile Hell alone prospersAnd the wise men are absurd VI. A wolf Day surprises me and night scares mehaunts me and winter follows meAn animal walking on the snow has placedIts paws in the sand or in the mud Its paws have traveledFrom further afar than my own stepsOn a path where deathHas the imprints of life VII. A flawless fire The threat under the red skyCame from below -- jawsAnd scales and linksOf a slippery, heavy chain Life was spread about generouslySo that death took seriouslyThe debt it was paid without a thought Death was the God of loveAnd the conquerors in a kissSwooned upon their victimsCorruption gained courage And yet, beneath the red skyUnder the appetites for bloodUnder the dismal starvationThe cavern closed The kind earth filledThe graves dug in advanceChildren were no longer afraid


Of maternal depths And madness and stupidityAnd vulgarity make wayFor humankind and brotherhoodNo longer fighting against life --For an everlasting humankind VIII. Liberty On my school notebooksOn my desk, on the treesOn the sand, on the snowI write your nameOn all the read pagesOn all the empty pagesStone, blood, paper or ashI write your name On the golden imagesOn the weapons of warriorsOn the crown of kingsI write your name On the jungle and the desertOn the nests, on the broomOn the echo of my childhoodI write your name On the wonders of nightsOn the white bread of daysOn the seasons betrothedI write your name d'azur On all my blue ragsOn the sun-molded pondOn the moon-enlivened lakeI write your name On the fields, on the horizonOn the wings of birdsAnd on the mill of shadows


I write your name On every burst of dawnOn the sea, on the boatsOn the insane mountainI write your name On the foam of cloudsOn the sweat of the stormOn the rain, thick and insipidI write your name On the shimmering shapesOn the colorful bellsOn the physical truthI write your name On the alert pathwaysOn the wide-spread roadsOn the overflowing placesI write your name On the lamp that is ignitedOn the lamp that is dimmedOn my reunited housesI write your name On the fruit cut in twoOf the mirror and of my roomOn my bed, an empty shellI write your name On my dog, young and greedyOn his pricked-up earsOn his clumsy pawI write your name On the springboard of my doorOn the familiar objectsOn the wave of blessed fireI write your name


On all harmonious fleshOn the face of my friendsOn every out-stretched handI write your name On the window-pane of surprisesOn the careful lipsWell-above silenceI write your name On my destroyed shelterOn my collapsed beaconOn the walls of my wearinessI write your name On absence without wantOn naked solitudeOn the steps of deathI write your name On regained healthOn vanished riskOn hope free from memoryI write your name And by the power of one wordI begin my life againI am born to know you To call you by name: Liberty! Paul Eluard


The Immediate Life What’s become of you why this white hair and pinkWhy this forehead these eyes rent apart heart-rendingThe great misunderstanding of the marriage of radiumSolitude chases me with its rancour. Paul Eluard


The Nakedness Of Truth (I Know It Well) Despair has no wings,Nor has love,No countenance:They do not speak.I do not stir,I do not behold them,I do not speak to them,But I am as real as my love and my despair. Paul Eluard


The River The river I have under my tongue,Unimaginable water, my little boat,And curtains lowered, let's speak. Paul Eluard


The Season Of Loves By the road of waysIn the three-part shadow of troubled sleepI come to you the double the multipleas like you as the era of deltas. Your head is as tiny as mineThe nearby sea reigns with springOver the summers of your fragile formAnd here one burns bundles of ermine. In the wandering transparencyof your noble facethese floating animals are wonderfulI envy their candour their inexperience Your inexperience on the bed of watersFinds the road of love without bowingBy the road of waysand without the talisman that revealsyour laughter at the crowd of womenand your tears no one wants Paul Eluard


The Word I have an easy beauty one that is happy.I glide on the surface of winds.I glide on the surface of seasI have grown sentimentalI no longer know the guideI no longer move silk over iceI am diseased flowers and stonesI love the most chinese of nudesI love the most naked lapses of wingsI am old but here I am beautifulAnd the shadow that flows from the deep windowsEach evening spares the dark heart of my stare. Paul Eluard


The World Is Blue As An Orange The world is blue as an orangeNo error the words do not lieThey no longer allow you to singIn the tower of kisses agreementThe madness the loveShe her mouth of allianceAll the secrets all the smilesOr what dress of indulgenceTo believe in quite naked.The wasps flourish greenlyDawn goes by round her neckA necklace of windowsYou are all the solar joysAll the sun of this earthOn the roads of your beauty. Paul Eluard


Thus, Woman, Principle Of Life, Speaker Of The Ideal Would you seeThe dark form of the sunThe contours of lifeOr be truly dazzledBy the fire that fuses allThe flame conveyer of modestiesIn flesh in gold that fine gesture Error is as unknownAs the limits of springThe temptation prodigiousAll touches all travels youAt first it was only a thunder of incenseWhich you love the moreThe fine praise at fourLovely motionless nudeViolin mute but palpableI speak to you of seeing I will speak to you of your eyesBe faceless if you wishOf their unwilling colourOf luminous stonesColourlessBefore the man you conquerHis blind enthusiasmReigns naively like a springIn the desert Between the sands of night and the waves of dayBetween earth and waterNo ripple to eraseNo road possible Between your eyes and the images I see thereIs all of which I thinkMyself inderacinableLike a plant which masses itselfWhich simulates rock among other rocks


That I carry for certainYou all entireAll that you gaze atAll This is a boatThat sails a sweet riverIt carries playful womenAnd patient grainThis is a horse descending the hillOr perhaps a flame risingA great barefooted laugh in a wretched heartAn autumn height of soothing verdureA bird that persists in folding its wings in its nestA morning that scatters the reddened lightTo waken the fieldsThis is a parasolAnd this the dressOf a lace-maker more seductive than a bouquetOf the bell-sounds of the rainbow This thwarts immensityThis has never enough spaceWelcome is always elsewhereWith the lightning and the floodThat accompany itOf medusas and firesMarvellously obligingThey destroy the scaffoldingTopped by a sad coloured flagA bounded starWhose fingers are paralysed I speak of seeing youI know you livingAll exists all is visibleThere is no fleck of night in your eyes I see by a light exclusively yours. Paul Eluard


To Live We both have our hands to giveTake mine I shall lead you afar I have lived several times my face hasw changedWith every threshold I have crossed and every hand clasped Familial springtimewas rebornKeeping for itself and for me its perishable snowDeath and the betrothedThe future with five fingers clenched and letting go My age always gave meNew reasons for living through othersFor having the blood of man other's heart in mine Oh the lucid fellow I was and that I amBefore the pallor of frail blind girlsLovelier than the delicate worn moon so fairBy the reflection of life's waysA trail of moss anf treesOf mist and morning dewOf the young body which does not rise aloneTo its place on earthWind cold and rain cradle itSummer makes a man of it Presesence is my virtue in each visible handOnly death is solitudeFrom delight to fury from fury to clarityI make myself whole through all beingsThrough all weather on the earth and in the cloudsThrough the passing seasons I am youngAnd strong for having livedI am young my blood rises over my ruins We have our hands to entwine Nothing can ever seduce betterTahn our bonding to each other a forestReturning earth to sky and the sky to night To the night which prepares an unending day.


Paul Eluard


To Marc Chagall Donkey or cow, cockerel or horseOn to the skin of a violinA singing man a single birdAn agile dancer with his wife A couple drenched in their youth The gold of the grass lead of the skySeparated by azure flamesOf the health-giving dewThe blood glitters the heart rings A couple the first reflection And in a cellar of snowThe opulent vine drawsA face with lunar lipsThat never slept at night. Paul Eluard


Uninterrupted Poetry From the sea to the sourceFrom mountain to plainRuns the phantom of lifeThe foul shadow of deathBut between usA dawn of ardent flesh is bornAnd exact goodthat sets the earth in orderWe advance with calm stepAnd nature salutes usThe day embodies our coloursFire our eyes the sea our unionAnd all living resemble usAll the living we loveImaginary the othersWrong and defined by their birthBut we must struggle against themThey live by dagger blowsThey speak like a broken chairTheir lips tremble with joyAt the echo of leaden bellsAt the muteness of dark goldA lone heart not a heartA lone heart all the heartsAnd the bodies every starIn a sky filled with starsIn a career in movementOf light and of glancesOur weight shines on the earthGlaze of desireTo sing of human shoresFor you the living I loveAnd for all those that we loveThat have no desire but to loveI’ll end truly by barring the roadAfloat with enforced dreamsI’ll end truly by finding myselfWe’ll take possession of earth


Paul Eluard


We Have Created The Night We have created the night I hold your hand I watchI sustain you with all my powersI engrave in rock the star of your powersDeep furrows where your body’s goodness fruitsI recall your hidden voice your public voiceI smile still at the proud womanYou treat like a beggarThe madness you respect the simplicity you bathe inAnd in my head which gently blends with yours with the nightI wonder at the stranger you becomeA stranger resembling you resembling everything I loveOne that is always new. Paul Eluard


We Two We two take each other by the handWe believe everywhere in our houseUnder the soft tree under the black skyBeneath the roofs at the edge of the fireIn the empty street in broad daylightIn the wandering eyes of the crowdBy the side of the foolish and wiseAmong the grown-ups and childrenLove’s not mysterious at allWe are the evidence ourselvesIn our house lovers believe. Paul Eluard


Your Orange Hair In The Void Of The World Your orange hair in the void of the worldIn the void of these heavy panes of silenceShade where my bare hands seek your image. The shape of your heart is chimericalAnd your love resembles my lost desire.O sighs of amber, dreams, glances. But you were not always here. My memoryIs still obscured by seeing your comingAnd going. Time consumes words, like love. Paul Eluard


Paul Eluard - poems - PoemHunter.Com · Like André Breton, Aragon, Péret, Soupault and other...

Documents

Transcript of Paul Eluard - poems - PoemHunter.Com · Like André Breton, Aragon, Péret, Soupault and other...