The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

MALCOLM DE CHAZAL

But her words were not understood, or even heard. The joy of a crowd has a
thousand mouths — and no ears.
—mary ann caws

Malcolm de Chazal 1902–1981

vacoas, mauritius

O

riginally hailed as a Surrealist by André Breton, de Chazal was later

disowned because of his interest in the occult. His work went far

beyond the wordplay, metaphor, and free associations of Surrealism

to a sensuous examination of the possible connections between elements in

nature, humans and nature, mind and body. De Chazal was schooled in engi-

neering and wrote in French rather than English, though his writing remained

true to the exotic land of his youth. In the 1960s the president of Senegal, Léopold

Sédar Senghor, a poet himself, nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature

for his essentially African poetry. Principal works: Pensées et sens plastique, 1945;

Sens plastique II, 1945; Sens magique, 1956; Le Sens unique, 1986.

Plastic Sense

The idiot bleats with his gaze.

Spices set the tongue fox-trotting and the palate waltzing.

...

Grey is the ashtray of the sun.

Flashing are the hips of the sun; and gleaming are its breasts.

...