TRISTAN TZARAfrom Surrealism to the Communist Party, Tzara’s are straightforward in imagery
and tone, eschewing the kind of lofty and often hermetic lyricism of Surrealist
poetry and prose and its experimental wordplay. Principal works: La Première
Aventure céleste de Monsieur Antipyrine, 1916; Vingt-cinq poèmes, 1918; Cinéma
calendrier du coeur abstrait, Maisons, 1920; De nos oiseaux, 1923; Indicateur des
chemins du coeur, 1928; L’Arbre des voyageurs, 1930; L’Homme approximatif, 1931;
Où boivent les loups, 1932; L’Antitête, 1933; Grains et issues, 1935; Sur le champ, 1935;
Midis gagnés, 1939; Le Coeur à gaz, 1946; Le Signe de vie, 1946; Terre sur terre, 1946;
Parler seul, 1950; De mémoire d’homme, 1950; La Face intérieure, 1952; Miennes,
1955; Le Fruit permis, 1956; Juste Présent, 1961.
White Giant Leper of the Countryside
salt groups itself in a constellation of birds on the cotton tumor
in its lungs starfish and bedbugs swing
the microbes crystallize in palms of muscles swings
goodmorning without cigarette tzantzantza ganga
bouzdouc zdouc nfounfa mbaah mbaah nfounfa
macrocystis perifera to kiss the boats boat surgeon scar
clean damp
laziness of brilliant lights
boats nfounfa nfounfa nfounfa
I stick candles in his ears ganganfah helicon and boxer on the balcony the hotel’s
violin in baobabs of flames
the flames develop in spongelike formation
the flames are sponges nganga and strike
the ladders climb like blood ganga
the ferns toward the woolen steppes my chance toward the waterfalls
the flames glass sponges mattresses wounds mattresses
the mattresses fall wancanca aha bzdouc the butterflies
scissors scissors scissors and shadows
scissors and clouds scissors ships
the thermometer looks at the ultrared gmbababa
bertha my education my tail is cold and monochromatic nfoua loua la
mushrooms oranges and the family of sounds beyond starboard
at the origin at the origin the triangle and the travelers’ tree at the origin
my brains go o√ toward hyperbole