Guillaume Apollinaire
Guillaume Apollinaire(26 August1880–9 November1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish descent who was hugely influential as aModernistpoet and as a spokesman for theCubistpainters. His original name appears in many forms along the lines ofWilhelm Albert Vladimir Apollinaris KostrowitzkyorWąż-Kostrowicki.
Quotes
[edit]- De cette alliance nouvelle, car jusqu'ici les décors et les costumes, d'une part, la choréographie, d'autre part, n'avaient entre eux qu'un lien factice, il est résulté, dansParade,une sorte de sur-réalisme.
- From this new alliance – for until now costume and scenery on one hand, choreography on the other, have been linked only artificially – there has resulted inParadea kind ofsur-réalisme.
- Excelsior,May 11,1917;translation from Michael Benedikt & George E. Wellwarth (eds.)Modern French Theatre(New York: Dutton, 1964) p. xvii.
- The first usage of the wordsurrealismin any language.
- La géométrie est aux arts plastiques ce que la grammaire est à l'art de l'écrivain.
- Geometry is to the plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the writer.
- Les peintres cubistes(1913), reprinted inOeuvres en prose complètes(Paris: Gallimard, 1991) vol. 2, p. 11; translation from Lionel Abel (trans.)The Cubist Painters(New York: Wittenborn, 1949) p. 13.
- The poems I am writing at the moment will be much closer to your present way of thinking.I am trying to renew poetic style,but within a classical framework.On the other hand,I don't want to lapse into imitating others.Letter to Picasso 1918
Alcools(1912)
[edit]- A la fin tu es las de ce monde ancien
Bergère ô tour Eiffel le troupeau des ponts bêle ce matin
Tu en as assez de vivre dans l'antiquité grecque et romaine- At last you're tired of this elderly world
Shepherdess OEiffel Towerthis morning the bridges are bleating
You're fed up living with antiquity - "Zone", line 1; translation fromDonald Revell(trans.)Alcools(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 3.
- At last you're tired of this elderly world
- Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine
Et nos amours
Faut-il qu'il m'en souvienne
La joie venait toujours après la peine
Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure
Les jours s'en vont je demeure- UnderMirabeau Bridgeflows the Seine.
Why must I be reminded again
Of our love?
Doesn't happiness issue from pain?
Bring on the night, ring out the hour.
The days wear on but I endure. - "Le Pont Mirabeau" (Mirabeau Bridge), line 1; translation byWilliam Meredith,fromFrancis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 193.
- UnderMirabeau Bridgeflows the Seine.
- L'amour s'en va comme cette eau courante
L'amour s'en va
Comme la vie est lente
Et comme l'Espérance est violente- And love runs down like this
Water, love runs down.
How slow life is,
How violent hope is. - "Le Pont Mirabeau" (Mirabeau Bridge), line 13; translation by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 193.
- And love runs down like this
- Passent les jours et passent les semaines
Ni temps passé
Ni les amours reviennent- Nor days nor any time detain.
Time past or any love
Cannot come again. - "Le Pont Mirabeau" (Mirabeau Bridge), line 19; translation by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 193.
- Nor days nor any time detain.
- Mon beau navire ô ma mémoire
Avons-nous assez navigué
Dans une onde mauvaise à boire
Avons-nous assez divagué
De la belle aube au triste soir- O pretty ship, my memory
Isn't this far enough to sea,
And the sea not fit to drink?
Haven't we drifted far and lost
From fair dawn to dreary dusk? - "La Chanson du Mal-Aimé" (Song of the Poorly Loved), line 51; translation by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 95.
- O pretty ship, my memory
- Adieu faux amour confondu
Avec la femme qui s'éloigne
Avec celle que j'ai perdue
L'année dernière en Allemagne
Et que je ne reverrai plus
Voie lactée ô sœur lumineuse
Des blancs ruisseaux de Chanaan
Et des corps blancs des amoureuses
Nageurs morts suivrons-nous d’ahan
Ton cours vers d'autres nébuleuses- Farewell, false love, I took you for
The woman that I lost last year
Forever as I think:
I loved her but I will not see
Her any more in Germany.
O Milky Way, sister in whiteness
To Canaan's rivers and the bright
Bodies of lovers drowned,
Can we follow toilsomely
Your path to other nebulae? - "La Chanson du Mal-Aimé" (Song of the Poorly Loved), line 56; translation by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 95.
- Farewell, false love, I took you for
- Moi qui sais des lais pour les reines
Les complaintes de mes années
Des hymnes d'esclave aux murènes
La romance du mal-aimé
Et des chansons pour les sirènes- I've made a song for the poorly loved
And songs for everything I grieved –
For unaccompanied slave and shark,
For queens who've gone into the dark. - "La Chanson du Mal-Aimé" (Song of the Poorly Loved), line 91; translation by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 97.
- I've made a song for the poorly loved
- Et ma vie pour tes yeux lentement s'empoisonne
- And for your eyes my life takes poison slowly.
- "Les colchiques" (The Saffrons), line 7; translation from Donald Revell (trans.)Alcools(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 35.
- Et l'unique cordeau des trompettes marines
- And the single string of the marine trumpets.
- "Chantre" (Singer), in its entirety; translations by William Meredith, from Francis SteegmullerApollinaire: Poet Among the Painters(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) p. 210.
- Un jour
Un jour je m'attendais moi-même
Je me disais Guillaume il est temps que tu viennes
Pour que je sache enfin celui-là que je suis
Moi qui connais les autres- One day
One day I waited for myself
I said to myself Guillaume it's time you came
So I could know just who I am
I who know others - "Cortège", line 19; translation fromRoger Shattuck(trans.)Selected Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire(New York: New Directions, 1971) p. 75.
- One day
- Je passais au bord de la Seine
Un livre ancien sous le bras
Le fleuve est pareil à ma peine
Il s'écoule et ne tarit pas
Quand donc finira la semaine- I used to walk by the river
An old book under my arm
The river is the same as pain
It elapses mindlessly
And when will the week be over - "Marie", line 21; translation from Donald Revell (trans.)Alcools(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 75.
- I used to walk by the river
- J'ai cueilli ce brin de bruyère
L'automne est morte souviens-t'en
Nous ne nous verrons plus sur terre
Odeur du temps brin de bruyère
Et souviens-toi que je t'attends- I picked this sprig of heather
Autumn has died you must remember
We shall not see each other ever
I'm waiting and you must remember
Time's perfume is a sprig of heather - "L'Adieu" (The Farewell), line 1; translation from Donald Revell (trans.)Alcools(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 83.
- I picked this sprig of heather
- Passons passons puisque tout passe
Je me retournerai souvent
Les souvenirs sont cors de chasse
Dont meurt le bruit parmi le vent- We hurry since everything hurries
And I shall never not return
Memories are all archaic horns
Silenced by the wind. - "Cors de chasse" (Hunting Horns), line 9; translation from Donald Revell (trans.)Alcools(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1995) p. 159.
- We hurry since everything hurries
Calligrammes(1918)
[edit]Translations and page-numbers are from Donald Revell (trans.)The Self-Dismembered Man: Selected Later Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire(Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press, 2004).
- Me voici devant tous un homme plein de sens
Connaissant la vie et de la mort ce qu'un vivant peut connaître
Ayant éprouvé les douleurs et les joies de l'amour
Ayant su quelquefois imposer ses idées
Connaissant plusieurs langages
Ayant pas mal voyagé
Ayant vu la guerre dans l'Artillerie et l'lnfanterie
Blessé à la tête trépané sous le chloroforme
Ayant perdu ses meilleurs amis dans l'effroyable lutte
Je sais d'ancien et de nouveau autant qu'un homme seul pourrait des deux savoir- You see before you a man in his right mind
Worldly-wise and with access to death
Having tested the sorrow of love and its ecstasies
Having sometimes even astonished the professors
Good with languages
Having travelled a great deal
Having seen battle in the Artillery and the Infantry
Wounded in the head trepanned under chloroform
Having lost my best friends in the butchery
As much of antiquity and modernity as can be known I know - "La jolie rousse" (The Pretty Redhead), line 1; p. 133.
- You see before you a man in his right mind
- Nous voulons explorer la bonté contrée énorme où tout se tait
- We mean to explore kindness and its enormous silences.
- "La jolie rousse" (The Pretty Redhead), line 26; p. 135.
- Voici que vient l'été la saison violente
Et ma jeunesse est morte ainsi que le printemps
Ô soleil c'est le temps de la raison ardente- And now comes the summer of violence
And my youth is as dead as the springtime
O Sun it is the time of fiery Reason - "La jolie rousse" (The Pretty Redhead), line 31; p. 135.
- And now comes the summer of violence
- Ô bouches l'homme est a la recherche d'un nouveau langage
Auquel le grammairien d'aucune langue n'aura rien à dire- O mouths humanity seeks a new language
Beyond the reach of grammarians - "Victoire" (Victory), line 21; p. 125.
- O mouths humanity seeks a new language
Uncertain
[edit]- Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.
- Commonly attributed, but source unknown.
Misattributed
[edit]- Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came
And he pushed
And they flew.- Christopher Logue's poem "Come to the Edge" fromNew Numbers(London: Cape, 1969) pp. 65-66. It was originally written for a poster advertising an Apollinaire exhibition at theICAin 1961 or 1962, and was titled "Apollinaire Said"; hence it is often misattributed to Apollinaire (Source:Quote…Unquote Newsletter,July 1995, p. 2).
