ÉLUARD, Paul (1895-1952)

Autograph poem signed « Paul Eluard »
N.p.n.d, 1 p. in-8°

« Garcia Lorca was put to death »

EUR 5.500,-
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ÉLUARD, Paul (1895-1952)

Autograph poem signed « Paul Eluard »
N.p.n.d, 1 p. in-8° on lined paper
Slight traces of previous mounting on verso

Famous committed poem denouncing the fascist and Francoist executions of his comrades

Manuscript offered by the poet to his friend Louis Parrot


« Le feu fait danser la forêt
Les mains les troncs les cœurs les feuilles
Le bonheur en un seul bouquet
Confus léger fondant sucré
C’est toute une forêt d’amis
Qui s’assemble aux fontaines vertes
Du bon soleil du bois flambant

Garcia Lorca a été mis à mort

Maison d’une seule parole
Et des lèvres unies pour vivre
Un tout petit enfant sans larmes
Dans ses prunelles d’eau perdue
La lumière de l’avenir
Goutte à goutte elle comble l’homme
Jusqu’aux paupières transparentes

Saint-Pol-Roux a été mis à mort
Sa fille a été suppliciée

Ville glacée d’angles semblables
Où je rêve de fruits en fleur
Du ciel entier et de la terre
Comme à de vierges découvertes
Dans un jeu qui n’en finit pas
Pierres fanées murs sans écho
Je vous évite d’un sourire

Decour a été mis à mort

Paul Eluard »

[Éluard adds in pencil to the lower left corner : « Pour Louis Parrot »]


Composed in 1943, this poem is one of Éluard’s most committed texts. Constructed in three octosyllabic septains, the poet intersperses, with two monostics and a couplet with anaphoric formulas, the names of his companions put to death by Franco’s militias and the German occupiers. If the septains encourage the impulse of the imagination, we notice, by contrast, the cold simplicity of the words used for his tortured friends, arousing compassion, emotion and anger. Their dramatic progression, devoid of any pathos, allows Éluard to confront us with the brutal reality of war crimes.

First published in Lettres, 1943, July, n°4, this poem closes the collection Le Lit la table, published by Éditions des Trois Collines in Geneva, in 1944. It was then published in Poésie 44, n°20, p. 18-20, then reprinted in Per Catalunya, 1945, October, as well as in Poésie 39-45, an anthology, London, 1947, with the English translation by Roland Penrose opposite the French text. It was also published in Europe, 1953, July-August, pp. 91-92, special issue Paul Éluard, p. 122.
Still with regard to this poem, we also find a note by Éluard in an appendix entitled “Raisons d’écrire” which is to be found in the collection 62, Au rendez-vous allemand:
“Signed with my name, these poems [L’Aube dissables les monstres, Critique de la poésie and Enterrar y callar published under the title Trois poèmes dans Poésie 44, n°20, p. 18-20] had been entrusted to Poésie 43, during the Occupation. The censorship had banned their publication. Transmitted to our Swiss friends, they were soon published in Lettres, Traits, in Domaine français and in Le Lit la table, a volume of poems published by the Trois Collines editions. »

Mentioned in the Pléiade (p. 1630), this manuscript reveals two variants with the published version: Le feu réveille la forêt / Les troncs les cœurs les mains les feuilles thus becomes Le feu fait danser la forêt / Les mains les troncs les cœurs les feuilles.

A friendship that has its origins during the Spanish Civil War:
A lecturer at the University of Madrid, where he met many Spanish poets, Louis Parrot (1906-1948) also met Paul Éluard. Thus began a deep friendship between the two men, marked by an abundant artistic collaboration. Together they translated Ode à Salvador Dalí by Federico Garcia Lorca, published in 1938. In May 1944, Parrot published a monograph on Éluard with Seghers, which he wanted for his friend to be the first issue of the famous collection Poètes d’aujourd’hui. Parrot also became his friend’s correspondent in the Free Zone during the 1939-45 war. Finally, he distinguished himself as a resistance writer who collaborated with the clandestine editions of Minuit, notably through the collection L’Honneur des poètes.

Provenance:
Louis Parrot
Collection B. & R. Broca

Bibliographie [see above]:
Œuvres complètes I, éd. Marcelle Dumas et Lucien Scheler, Pléade, p. 1221-1222