The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

PIERRE-JEAN JOUVE

An Egg

Chance had an egg break in earthly Paradise.
From that day on, Adam kept trying to break apart the pebbles that looked
like an egg.

***

It wasn’t an apple that Eve held out to Adam. It was a key. I came across this
key: it was quite rusty, poor thing.

***

I saw the three Fates the way you would see one’s faults. They were in the stalls
of my church: one seated in my place and the others standing. They were clothed
in black crepe, one was handling large tailor’s scissors, another some
equipment—a baker’s, I think (?). The third was tossing up into the air some
pearls that a very large yellow terrier was trying to catch. And I who was hoping
for death yesterday, here I am frozen with fear at the idea of the scissors and the
thread of my days.
—mary ann caws

Pierre-Jean Jouve 1887–1976

arras, france

A

lthough Jouve would eventually become known as a novelist, his first

passion was music. It was not until he met Mallarmé that he turned his

talents toward literature. He was a believer in Unanism and its spirit of

universal participation, which led him to volunteer at a military hospital during

World War I. In 1924, Jouve su√ered a psychological breakdown. With the benefit of

psychoanalysis and the strength of his newfound faith in Christianity, he recovered.

The latter enabled him to surmount his dark pessimism; the former led him to

explore and write under what he called ‘‘the impulse of eros and death, knotted

together.’’ Principal works: Artificiel, 1909; Les Aéroplanes, 1911; Présences, 1912;