BENJAMIN PÉRETreview La Révolution surréaliste with Pierre Navaille. So opposed was he to the
merging of politics and poetry that he wrote ‘‘Le Déshonneur des poètes,’’ a
rebuttal to the collective volume L’Honneur des poètes, extolling, by example, the
glories of Resistance poetry. In his absolute view, no pragmatic use should be
made of the poetic. Péret joined the Communist Party in 1926 and went to Brazil
to work as a party organizer in 1931. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1940 for
subversive activities but succeeded in escaping to Mexico, where he married the
Surrealist painter Remedios Varo. His poetic inventions are numerous and in-
creasingly appreciated by young and emerging poets; his sense of humor is
contagious, and his political-poetic positions vigorous. Principal works: Le Pas-
sager du transatlantique, 1921; Immortelle maladie, 1924; Dormir dormir dans les
pierres, 1927; Le Grand Jeu, 1928; La Pêche en eau trouble, 1928; De derrière les
fagots, 1934; Je ne mange pas de ce pain-là, 1936; Jeu sublime, 1936; Dernier malheur
dernière chance, 1945; Feu central, 1947; Air mexicain, 1949.
Hello
My airplane in flames my castle flooded with Rhenish wine
my black iris ghetto my crystal ear
my rock hurtling down the cli√ to smash the country policeman
my opal snail my air mosquito
my quilt of birds of paradise my hair of black foam
my tomb burst open my red grasshopper rain
my flying island my turquoise grape
my wreck of cars mad and careful my wild flowerbed
my pistil of dandelion projected in my eye
my tulip onion in the brain
my gazelle wandering o√ in some moviehouse
my casket of sun my volcano fruit
my laugh like a hidden pool where distraught prophets drown
my flood of blackcurrant my nightshade butterfly
my blue waterfall like a tidal wave making springtime
my coral revolver’s mouth drawing me like the gleaming well
glassy as the mirror where you watch the hummingbirds of your gaze
escaping
lost in a linen show framed with mummies
I love you
—mary ann caws