The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

TRISTAN TZARA

XVII

where you see the bridges linking night breathing
darkness splits and clusters in pavilions
stretched down roads and winds toward your caress
the wound

XVIII

the horse devours colored snakes
be quiet

XIX

the stone
dance dance lord
the fever thinks a flower
dance dance on the stone
hot braid

—mary ann caws

The Death of Guillaume Apollinaire

we know nothing
we knew nothing of grief
the bitter season of cold
digs long furrows in our muscles
he would have preferred the joy of victory
wise under calm sorrows caged
unable to do anything at all
if snow fell upward
if the sun rose to meet us during the night
to warm us
and trees hung with their crown upside down
—unique teardrop—
if birds were here with us to contemplate themselves
in the tranquil lake above our heads
WE COULD UNDERSTAND
death would be a beautiful long voyage
and an unlimited vacation from the flesh of structures and of bones
—mary ann caws