Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos
Under Cover of Night by Robert Desnos To slip into your shadow under cover of night. To follow your footsteps, your shadow at the window. That shadow at the window is you and no one else; it’s you. Do not open that window behind whose curtains you’re moving. Shut your eyes. I’d like to shut […]
The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos
The Voice of Robert Desnos by Robert Desnos So like a flower and a current of air the flow of water fleeting shadows the smile glimpsed at midnight this excellent evening so like every joy and every sadness it is the midnight past lifting its naked body above belfries and poplars I call to me […]
The Ring of Stars by Robert Desnos
The Ring of Stars by Robert Desnos In order to make a star with five branches Where six would have been the same A circle must first be drawn In order to make a star with five branches … A ring! One did not take so many precuations In order to make a tree from […]
Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos
Sleep Spaces by Robert Desnos In the night there are of course the seven wonders of the world and the greatness tragedy and enchantment. Forests collide with legendary creatures hiding in thickets. There is you. In the night there are the walker’s footsteps the murderer’s the town policeman’s light from the street lamp and the […]
No, Love Is Not Dead by Robert Desnos
No, Love Is Not Dead by Robert Desnos No, love is not dead in this heart these eyes and this mouth that announced the start of its own funeral. Listen, I’ve had enough of the picturesque, the colorful and the charming. I love love, its tenderness and cruelty. My love has only one name, one […]
Lying Down by Robert Desnos
Lying Down by Robert Desnos To the right, the sky, to the left, the sea. And before your eyes, the grass and its flowers. A cloud, the road, follows its vertical way Parallel to the plumb line of the horizon, Parallel to the rider. The horse races towards its imminent fall And the other climbs […]
Long Long Ago by Robert Desnos
Long Long Ago by Robert Desnos Long long ago I went through the castle of leaves Yellowing slowly in the moss And far away barnacles clung desperately to rocks in the sea Your memory better still your tender presence was there too Transparent and mine Nothing had changed but everything had aged at the same […]
If You Only Knew by Robert Desnos
If You Only Knew by Robert Desnos Far from me and like the stars, the sea and all the trappings of poetic myth, Far from me but here all the same without your knowing, Far from me and even more silent because I imagine you endlessly. Far from me, my lovely mirage and eternal dream, […]
Identity of Images by Robert Desnos
Identity of Images by Robert Desnos I am fighting furiously with animals and bottles In a short time perhaps ten hours have passed one after another The beautiful swimmer who was afraid of coral wakes this morning Coral crowned with holly knocks on her door Ah! coal again always coal I conjure you coal tutelary […]
Fairy Tale by Robert Desnos
Fairy Tale by Robert Desnos Many times upon a time There was a man who loved a woman. Many times upon a time There was a woman who loved a man. Many times upon a time There was a man and there was a woman Who did not love the ones who loved them. Once […]
Study in Hands by Théophile Gautier
Study in Hands by Théophile Gautier I Imperia I saw a plaster hand, on view In sculptor’s studio, set apart… Aspasia’s? Cleopatra’s?… Who? This fragment’s human work of art? Like lily silvered by the dawn, Frozen in kiss of snow, its light Loveliness dazzled me, and shone In poetry of purest white. Though pallid, wan, […]
Smoke by Théophile Gautier
Smoke by Théophile Gautier Over there, trees are sheltering A hunchedback hut… A slum, no more… Roof askew, walls and wainscoting Falling away… Moss hides the door. Only one shutter, hanging… But Seeping over the windowsill, Like frosted breath, proof that this hut, This slum, is living, breathing still. Corkscrew of smoke… A wisp of […]
Last Wish by Théophile Gautier
Last Wish by Théophile Gautier A long time have I known you… Why, Full eighteen years, I must confess! All pink are you; pale, blear am I. Winters, mine; yours, spring’s comeliness! White cemetery lilacs sprout Over my temples; but soon, now, The grove entire will bloom about My head, to shade my withered brow. […]