The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

JACQUES DUPIN

the other is the swallow, you won’t need to put down your foot any more, I dream
of walking, that’s true, walking and drinking, and when you’ve drunk impossible
to walk, and I dream of the earth, the earth right there, the earth completely on
top, touching one atop the other, that I dream of putting my hand there, the hand
before the foot, and you will walk for five hundred days and the tongue will
descend towards you, I dream that I saw the trees leaping by little jumps, and
lines of three thousand steps, we were going to drink in that garden, and all the
birds were coming to rest one after the other, on the long straight branches, no
other figure than the foot following the other one, and both on the same line, feet
together leaping like sparrows. An ant rushes over the floor, they told you, they’ll
tell you again, these things have no importance, an old dry ant of what size?
You’ve read that in Ethiopia they raise ants as big as a big dog, scratching the sand
day and night to find gold and able to pull a man to pieces should he come to rob
them, the books are full of lies, six paws for a dog who goes to get groceries, the
ant’s abundance produces no treasures, abundance, abundance
—mary ann caws

Jacques Dupin 1927–

privas, france

A

long with Philippe Jaccottet, Yves Bonnefoy, and André du Bouchet,

Dupin was one of the foremost French poets of the 1950s and remains

among the most respected poets today. Like them, he is concerned

with the interrelations of language and art; Georges Braque, among other artists,

illustrated his work. Dupin was born in the Ardèche, a mountainous region that

turns up in his work; he is fascinated with the relationships between landscapes

and people. At the end of the war, he moved to Paris. As an art historian, he is

celebrated for his major works on Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, and many

other artists. From 1956 to 1981 he worked at the Galerie Maeght. Principal works:

Gravir, 1963; L’Embrasure, 1969; Dehors, 1975; Une apparence de soupirail, 1982;

Contumace 1986; Chansons troglodytes, 1989; Rien encore, tout déjà, 1990; Echan-

cré, 1991; Le Grésil, 1996; Écart, 2000.