Love and scandal are the best sweeteners of tea. —Henry Fielding

22 September 2010

Invention

Poem for the day by Paul Éluard. This is called "Invention" and it's from his collection Répétitions. The translation is by Mary Ann Caws and Patricia Terry.

The right hand lets sand slip through.
All transformations are possible.

Far off, the sun sharpens on the stones its haste to finish.
Describing the landscape matters little,
Just the pleasing length of a harvest.

For my two eyes a brightness
Like water and fire.
*
What is the role of the root?
Despair has severed all its links
Raising its hands to its head.
Sevem four, two, one,
In the street a  hundred women
I won't see again.
*
 The art of love, liberal art, the art of dying well, the art of thinking, incoherent art, the art of smoking, the art of pleasure, medieval art, decorative art, the art of reasoning, the art of reasoning well, the art of poetry, mechanical art, erotic art, the art of being a grandfather, the art of dancing, the art of seeing, the art of charm, the art of the caress, Japanese art, the art of playing, the art of eating, the art of torturing.
*
But I've never found what I write in what I love.

3 comments:

  1. angsty, i like it. dashboard confessional for the french surrealist.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i was suddenly reminded of this:

    SADNESS OF THE INTELLECT: Sadness of being misunderstood [sic]; Humor sadness; Sadness of love wit[hou]t release; Sadne[ss of be]ing smart; Sadness of not knowing enough words to [express what you mean]; Sadness of having options; Sadness of wanting sadness; Sadness of confusion; Sadness of domes[tic]ated birds, Sadness of fini[shi]ng a book; Sadness of remembering; Sadness of forgetting; Anxiety sadness..

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh wow! So appropriate. I have not read Everything Is Illuminated yet, but I have been meaning to for awhile.

    I wonder why there is a [sic] after "Sadness of being misunderstood"...

    ReplyDelete