The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

LOUIS ARAGON

Big Spectacular Play

The friend with no heart or theater
Farewell
The one who is too gay
that is to say too lit up
to live far from the stage lights
From the room
threads dangling
From the corridors
you see just a golden cloud
flying machine
The Director believed in André’s love
Curtain rises
The bird flies o√
We had forgotten to plant the sets
Hullabaloo
The puppet sheds wood tears
To Take Leave
—mary ann caws

Partial

I dance amid the miracles
A thousand suns painted on the ground
A thousand friends A thousand eyes or monocles
illuminate me with their gazes
Tears of petrol on the road
Blood spilled up to the hangars

Thus I leap from one day to the next
multicolored round and lovelier
than a shooting mat or the hearth
when the flame is wind-colored
Life oh peaceful car
and the joyous danger of dashing forward

I shall burn with the headlights’ glare
—mary ann caws