Pierre reverdy was a French poet born in Narbonne. He was one of the inspirers of the surreal movement and He had a relationship with such important artists and writers as Picasso or Apollinaire. He passed away on a day like today in Solesmes in 1960. This is a selection of poems to read it, remember it or know it.
Pierre Reverdy - Selection of poems
The wind and the spirit
It is an extraordinary chimera. The head, higher than that floor, is located between the two wires and it sprawls out and stays, nothing moves.
The unknown head speaks and I don't understand a word, I don't hear a sound - down against the ground. I am always on the sidewalk in front of me and I look; I look at the words that he will throw further. The head speaks and I hear nothing, the wind disperses everything.
Oh great wind, mocking or gloomy, I have wished your death. And I lose my hat that you also took. I have nothing anymore; but my hatred lasts, woe more than yourself!
***
Heart hardness
I would never have wanted to see your sad face again
Your sunken cheeks and your hair in the wind
I went cross country
Under those humid forests
Night and day
In the sun and in the rain
Under my feet the dead leaves crunched
Sometimes the moon shone
We met face to face again
Looking at us without saying anything
And I didn't have enough room to go again
I was tied up against a tree for a long time
With your terrible love before me
More distraught than a nightmare
Someone bigger than you finally set me free
All the tearful glances haunt me
And this weakness that you can't fight
I flee quickly to evil
Towards the force that raises its fists like weapons
About the monster that tore me from your sweetness with its claws
Away from the soft and soft tightness of your arms
I'm breathing at the top of my lungs
Cross country to cross forest
To the miraculous city where my heart beats
***
Face to face
He steps forward and the stiffness of his timid gait betrays his poise.
The looks do not leave your feet. Everything that shines in those eyes
from where bad thoughts spring, his hesitant walk illuminates.
It is going to fall.
In the back of the room a familiar image stands tall. Your outstretched hand
goes to yours. He sees only that; but suddenly he stumbles
against himself.
***
Envy
Dim motley vision in his head, you run away from mine. Possess the stars
and the animals of the land, the peasants and the women to use them.
The Ocean has rocked him, the sea has rocked me, and it was he who received all the stamps.
Lightly brush the debris that he finds, everything is ordered and I feel
my heavy head crushing the fragile stems.
If you believed, destiny, that I could leave, you would have given me wings.
***
Nocturno
The street is completely dark and the station has not left its mark.
I would have liked to go out and they hold my door. Yet up there
someone watches and the lamp is out.
While the reverbs are but shadows, the announcements
they continue along the palisades. Listen, you can't hear the step of any
horse. However, a gigantic knight rushes over a
dancer and everything is lost turning, behind a vacant lot. Just the night
know where they meet. When morning comes they will clothe
its resplendent colors. Now everything is silent. The sky flickers and the moon
it hides between the chimneys. The dumb and seeing nothing police officers
they keep order.
***
Horizon
My finger bleeds
With the
I write to you
The reign of the old kings is over
The dream is a ham
Heavy
That hangs from the ceiling
And the ash from your cigar
Contains all the light
On the bend in the road
The trees bleed
The killer sun
Bloody the pines
And those who pass through the wet meadow
The afternoon the first owl fell asleep
I was drunk
My lax limbs hang there
And heaven holds me
The sky in which I wash my eyes every morning
Source: Web de To half voice