EMMANUEL HOCQUARDThe lines of words are folded this way.
There is no end to two remain
or Viviane the price to pay.
Grammar and fiction are one.
—rosmarie waldrop
Three Moral Tales
I
Let’s look around ourselves.
All our companions have a name;
all objects,
all the animals in our engravings
are indicated by a name.
All the people,
all the animals,
all things
have a name.
II
If someone tells you:
draw an orange...
You ask what kind:
green, ripe, large, small, round?
To draw it exactly
you must be told what it’s like.
The words: green, ripe, etc.
that are added to the name orange
and which tell of its qualities
good or bad
are modifiers.
The words which tell what persons
animals and things are like
are modifiers.
III
If I say:
A swallow flies,
I am understood.