Chansons Brèves
•
Short Songs
Chanson
•
Song
Minotaure
•
Minotaur
La Reine Couchée dans son Lit
•
Queen in Bed
Siramour
•
Siren-Amour
POEMS 1934-37
Les Quatre Sans Cou
•
The Four Cut Necks
Comme
•
Like
Sur La Radio / On the Radio
Complainte de Fantômas
•
Ballad of Fantomas
Translator’s note
Les Portes Battantes / Swing Doors
L’Évadé
•
The Escaper
10 Juin 1936
•
10 June 1936
Funérailles
•
Funeral
Érotisme de la Mémoire
•
Erotics of Memory
Chanson de Monsieur de Charette
•
Song of Mr Cart
Après Moi
•
After Me
Bonsoir Tout le Monde
•
Goodnight Everyone
L’Homme Qui a Perdu son Ombre
•
The Man Who Lost His Shadow
Bacchus et Apollon
•
Bacchus And Apollo
RESISTANT
POEMS PUBLISHED IN 1943
Translator’s note
État de Veille / State of Alert
Histoire d’un Chameau
•
Tale of a Camel
Histoire d’une Ourse
•
Tale of a Bear
Histoire d’une Abeille
•
Tale of a Bee
Terre
•
Earth
Rêves
•
Dreams
Alors la Trompette
•
Then the Trumpet
À Cinq Heures
•
At Five O’Clock
Aujourd’hui je me suis Promené
•
Today I Went for a Walk
Couplet des Portes Saint-Martin et Saint-Denis
•
Song of the St Martin and Saint-Denis Gates
Couplets de la Rue Saint-Martin
•
Song of the Rue St-Martin
Couplets de la Rue de Bagnolet
•
Song of the Rue de Bagnolet
Couplet du Trottoir d’Été
•
Song of the Summer Pavement
Couplet du Verre de Vin
•
Song of the Glass of Wine
Couplet du Boucher
•
Song of the Butcher
Fantôme
•
Phantom
Au temps des Donjons
•
In the Time of Evil Strongholds
Demain
•
Tomorrow
Saisons
•
Seasons
1942-43
Contrée / Against the Grain
Crépuscule d’Été
•
Summer Twilight
L’Étoile du Matin
•
Morning Star
La Cascade
•
The Waterfall
La Rivière
•
The River
Le Coteau
•
The Slope
La Route
•
The Road
Le Cimetière
•
The Cemetery
La Clairière
•
The Clearing
La Caverne
•
The Cave
Le Souvenir
•
The Memory
La Prophétie
•
The Prophecy
Le Sort
•
The Destiny
•
The Harvest
La Sieste
•
The Siesta
La Ville
•
The City
La Maison
•
The House
Le Paysage
•
The Countryside
La Nuit d’Été
•
The Summer Night
La Peste
•
&
nbsp; The Plague
La Nymphe Alceste
•
The Nymph Alcestis
La Voix
•
The Voice
La Vendange
•
The Vintage
L’Équinoxe
•
The Equinox
La Plage
•
The Beach
L’Asile
•
The Asylum
Le Réveil
•
The Awakening
L’Épitaphe
•
The Epitaph
Le Bain Avec Andromède / Bathing With Andromeda
Editorial note
La Baignade
•
The Bathing
Découverte du Trésor
•
Finding the Treasure
Naissance du Monstre
•
Birth of the Monster
Banquet
•
Banquet
Andromède en Proie au Monstre
•
Andromeda, the Monster's Prey
Meurtre
•
Murder
Danses
•
Dances
Délivrance d’Andromède
•
Andromeda Saved
Aube
•
Dawn
Calixto
•
Calixto, Nymph!
Dans l’Allée où la Nuit
•
In the Oak-Avenue
Par les Arbres Brisée
•
Broken by Trees
L’Aube à la Fin S’Enfuit
•
Dawn At Last Exits
Que Fureur Soit Ton Cri
•
Cry Fury!
Cesse, ô Calixto
•
Cease from Crying
Tu Viens au Labyrinthe
•
You Reach the Labyrinth
Sur le Bord de L’Abîme
•
Poised by the Chasm
Abandonnons à Toi, Rivière
•
River, We Leave You
On Dit qu’en Grand Mystère
•
It is Said
Mais Tu Te Trisses
•
You Scarper Though
1943-44
Ce Cœur Qui Haïssait La Guerre / This Heart Which Hated War
Le Legs
•
The Legacy
Ce Cœur Qui Haïssait La Guerre
•
This Heart Which Hated War
Si, Comme aux Vents Désignés par la Rose
•
The Winds around the Compass-Rose
Le Veilleur du Pont-au-Change
•
The Watchman at the Pont-au-Change
Vaincre le Jour, Vaincre la Nuit
•
To Conquer Day, To Conquer Night
Chanson de Route
•
Road Song
Printemps
•
Springtime
Robert le Diable
•
Robert the Devil
by Louis Aragon
Biographical Note
INTRODUCTION
ROBERT DESNOS (both the s’s are sounded) is, to this translator, the most exciting French poet of the last century. Already in his early twenties he found his way to the nascent Surrealist Movement in Paris, when it was just a little club. Surrealism set him free from the normal constraints of reason, relevance, coherence. At the same time he was immensely gifted in the traditional, probably timeless, poetic skills of rhyme and metre, alliteration and wordplay.
Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed poultry and game dealer at the Halles Market. In his youth he was secretary to Louis de Gonzague Frick, the poet and critic who was close to Apollinaire. He became a journalist as a young man, and remained one for most of his life. Among the Surrealists in 1922-4 he composed, while asleep or hypnotised, two hundred elaborate and witty super-spoonerisms which he credited to the inspiration of Rrose Sélavy, the fascinating altera ego invented by Marcel Duchamp (see my translator’s note for further discussion). For this, the Surrealists’ leader, André Breton, proclaimed him the ‘prophet’ of the movement. Desnos wrote a Surrealist novel, Liberty or Love. Like most of the Surrealists, he fell out with Breton; he soon attached himself to Georges Bataille, writing in the magazine Documents.
Some of his great love-poems were inspired by the night-club singer Yvonne George (see my translator’s note). These are poignant poems of love rejected, and being in free verse, are easier to translate than much of his other poetry, two reasons for their appearance in several English anthologies. In the years 1929 and 1930 Desnos was in conflict in both his literary and his private life: he had left Breton’s little club to take Surrealism out into the world, and Yvonne was dying of drink and drugs. He worked through this difficult period (see my translator’s note) with a series of big poems, in the historic alexandrine metre or in mixed metres, ending with an epic, The Night of Loveless Nights. He discovered the true love of his life in Lucie Badoud (Youki Foujita), who inspired many poems, mostly rhymed and metrical: the longest of that phase is Siramour. He moved on into radio with listeners sending in their dreams for him to interpret on air: he had a huge following. The Ballad of Fantomas was broadcast as a ‘superproduction’.
Desnos wrote a hundred poems for children – Flowersongs and Storysongs are much-loved classics in France, ‘The Ant’ being a favourite since it was sung by Juliette Gréco – but these are not included in this volume. He also wrote lyrics for songs, commercials and the cinema.
The gathering storm in Europe culminated in war and the occupation of France by German troops. Desnos, already a member of the Popular Front, responded by becoming an active Resistant (see my translator’s note) and being inspired to write the great sequences Against the Grain, Bathing With Andromeda (see Marie-Claire Dumas’ introductory note), and Calixto, full of meaning yet able to pass the censor (sadly, he never saw them in print). Other poems like ‘This Heart Which Hated War’ struck directly at the oppressor, heralding the return of freedom.
In 1944, Desnos was arrested and deported. After a year of suffering and slavery, he died of typhus at the Terezin death-camp on 8 June 1945. He is the only writer honoured with two quotations at the Monument to the Martyrs of the Deportation, close to the cathedral of Notre-Dame in his home city of Paris.
Timothy Adès
ROBERT DESNOS TIMELINE
1900 Born in Paris, son of a licensed dealer in poultry and game at Les Halles.
1902 Family moves to 11 rue St-Martin, and in 1913 to 9 rue de Rivoli.
1914 Studying English at Herne Bay, Kent.
1918 First poems published: encouraged by Louis de Gonzague Frick. Not called up to the military.