Robert Desnos 1900–1945
paris, france
O
ne of the original participants in Surrealism, the Parisian Desnos was
a master of several of the techniques that have led some to consider
the early 1920s Surrealism’s greatest moment. Desnos had a remark-able ability to write and speak in a trancelike state during the era of the ‘‘hypnotic
sleeps.’’ He practiced, as did all the Surrealists, automatic writing and drawing
under the dictates of the newly freed consciousness: for example, in the drawings
and writings called ‘‘le cadavre exquis’’ (the exquisite corpse), the first player puts
down the face or the first word, the second player follows, without cognizance of
the original contribution, and so on. Desnos also wrote as Rrose Sélavy (‘‘eros is
life’’), a personage created by Marcel Duchamp as his alter ego. Her/his word
play, untranslatable, is one of the summits of this ‘‘laboratory’’ phase of Surreal-
ism. Breton once commended Desnos for best exemplifying the truth of Surreal-
ism—before excommunicating him for his radio and publicity work. Desnos was
arrested by the Gestapo and died of typhus just after the liberation of the Nazi
camp Terezin, where he was incarcerated. Principal works: Deuil pour deuil, 1924;
A la mystérieuse, 1926; La Liberté ou l’amour! 1927; Les Ténèbres, 1927; Contrée,
Hour Farther
Hour farther witch art in Heaven
Hallowed bee, thine aim
Thy king done come!
Thy will be done in
ersatz is in Heaven.
Kippers this day-hour, Delhi bread.
And four kippers, sour trace, pa says,
As we four give them that trace paths against us.
And our leader’s not in to tempt Asians;
Butter liver (as from Eve) fill our men.
—martin sorrell