Living Well, a Voyage Without Borders

"Bien Vivre est un Voyage Sans Frontières" - Paul Eluard


Isaac Cohen

Delivered to
The Chicago Literary Club
April 8, 2002

Il nous faut peu de mots pour exprimer l'essentiel,
Il nous faut tous les mots pour le rendre réel.

We need few words to express the essential,
We need all the words to make it real.

Thus spoke Paul Eluard, the renowned militant french poet who died of a stroke at the age of 57, a year before Stalin, in the middle of the cold war. Was that a blessing or a curse? A curse claims Raymond Jean since Eluard's ideals of reason and justice would have been vindicated in the post-Stalinist universe. A blessing, according to others, though, since himself a Communist at first, but having witnessed the betrayal of the socialist promise, he would nonetheless have felt comfortable dying in perfect harmony with his political choices. Eluard was highly celebrated in certain fora, to the extent of becoming a mythical and legendary figure. We could read again today Jean Marcenac's words at Eluard's funeral, full of surprise and emotion: "In these November days, while mourning Eluard, in this bright and dark voyage from life to immortality, filled with tears, we have understood him."

News of Eluard's death reached noted poets and authors around the world, including Pablo Neruda, the renowned Chilean poet; Gabriela Mistral from Naples, Italy; Bertolt Brecht in Berlin; and Carlos Augusto Leon in Venezuela who wrote a poem in French protesting Eluard's death. The news also reached poorly literate people, each one calling his or her loved one, seeking a shoulder on which to lament and cry. André Maurois, one of Eluard's political opponents from the right wrote "Political differences prevent neither to admire a poet nor to appreciate a man. I loved this man the moment I met him. He impressed me with a compassionate dignity that one finds in his work."

The events in Eluard's life, both political and emotional, shaped what he would become, a passionate poet fighting social injustice at the beginning of the social revolution following WWI, as well as defending the virtues of freedom during the Nazi occupation of France in WWII. François Mauriac, another political opponent of Eluard, professed that all french schoolchildren should learn the famous poem Liberté, "Freedom" or "Liberty", by heart. And they did and, to this day, still do. In fact, "Liberty," which was written in hiding during Nazi-occupied France and which was widely distributed by the Resistance has been translated in numerous languages.

Above all, Eluard is best known as the incomparable and universal greatest poet of love of the twentieth century and perhaps of all time. I will try to intersperse in this short biography not only Eluard's love poems, but also those which reflect his social and political views, although you will recognize my bias in favor of the former.

Paul Eluard was born in December 14, 1895 in Saint Denis, a northern industrial suburb of Paris. His real name was Eugène-Émile-Paul Grindel but he used the pseudonym of Paul Eluard in his first publications, his surname being that of his maternal grandmother. Paul never forgot his popular working-class background. Robert Nugent, one of Eluard's biographers, commented that this environment "inspired in him a tenderness, a concern for human happiness, a quest for an answer to loneliness that informed his poetry." In 1912, at the age of seventeen, Eluard was diagnosed with tuberculosis, an illness which would haunt him for the rest of his life. Eluard left Paris for treatment at a sanatorium in Clavadel, near Davos. This sojourn in Switzerland was important in more than one respect. There, Eluard discovered foreign landscapes, fields of snow under the blue Swiss skies, and a pure and knife-sharp light which influenced the clarity of his views and the crispness of his perception throughout his life. Eluard also discovered a hidden emotion which would mark him for the rest of his life: love.

In Clavadel, Eluard wrote:

Un seul être A fait fondre la neige pure A fait naître des fleurs dans l'herbe Et le soleil est délivré.

A single being Caused the pure snow to melt Made flowers grow in the grass And the sun is set free

The "single being" referred to is a woman he met in Clavadel -- Gala, a fellow patient who would become Eluard's greatest love and inspiration. Hélène Dimitrovnia Diakonova Gala was born into a wealthy Moscow family and was well-acquainted with the literary and artistic worlds, having read Tolstoi and Dostoievsky. Gala is a beautiful brunette, nineteen years old, full of life. Gala is eager to try her charms on Eluard, her young and innocent admirer. In his poem Virginité, "Virginity", Eluard gives voice to Gala in more than perverse and sadistic ways:

Baisez mes yeux, baisez mes seins Baisez ma hanche sinueuse....

Kiss my eyes, kiss my breasts Kiss my sinewy hip...

Eluard's mother meets Gala at the sanatorium and even cohabitates with her. However, she doesn't like Gala and Eluard is torn between the two women he loves:

Pour moi, elles ne sont qu'un même être

For me, they are one and the same

In 1914, at the beginning of WWI, Gala returns to Moscow and Eluard is drafted into the medical corps as a nurse. Eluard writes about the horrors of the war that he witnessed:

"For the past two days we have received and evacuated over 3,000 wounded. All these poor men, herds of wounded are covered with mud and blood. Germans too in high numbers, even more miserable than ours. And they arrive unendingly. And guns thunder... Our hands are cold, at night they ache and dig graves, fast at night, we ache..."

Still battling tuberculosis, Eluard spends more of his time in the military as a patient than as a nurse. In 1916, in the midst of the war, Gala joins Eluard in Paris following intense correspondence. Eluard's determination to marry Gala leaves his parents no choice but to accept the inevitable. In early 1917, Eluard and Gala marry during one of his leaves and, shortly thereafter, he is withdrawn from the front due to ill health.

Eluard writes feverishly about the misery of the war, including 1917's, Le Devoir et l'Inquiétude, "The Duty and the Anxiety," where Eluard depicts the hope of men, trapped in a slaughter they did not want, their hope to live a normal life:

Les nuits sont chaudes et tranquilles Et nous gardons aux amoureuses Cette fidélité précieuse Entre toutes: l'espoir de vivre.

The nights are warm and tranquil And we bestow on our beloved ones This faith, more precious Than all: the hope to live.

In May 1918, Gala and Paul's daughter, Cécile, is born. Eluard's collection Poèmes pour la paix "Poems for Peace," twelve short poems, are sent to the printer and published four months before the November armistice of 1918. There, Eluard draws an idyllic picture of the returning soldier, the end of the horrid trenches, the beauty of gardens, the laughter of children and the happiness of love.

Tous les camarades du monde, Oh ! mes amis ! Ne valent pas à ma table rode Ma femme et mes enfants assis, Oh ! mes amis !

All the comrades of the World, O! my friends ! Are not worth on my round table My spouse and children seated, O! my friends !

Eluard marks the end of the war with a quiet yet powerful verse, chanting our inalienable right for social justice, love and happiness:

J'ai eu longtemps un visage inutile, Mais maintenant J'ai un visage pour être aimé, J'ai un visage pour être heureux.

I had for a long time a useless face, But now I have a face to be loved, I have a face for happiness.

Following WWI, the social revolution in Europe was gaining strength as depicted by Eluard in the following:

Nous allons lutter pour le bonheur après avoir lutté pour la Vie Nous possèderons l'horizon La bonne terre qui nous porte Et l'espace frais et profond, Flûte et violon.

We will fight for happiness after having fought for Life We will own the horizon, The good earth that carries us And the fresh and deep expanse, Flute and violin.

After the war, Eluard worked for his father in real estate, but was becoming ever-involved in the post-war literary milieux, beginning with the Dada nihilistic movement which grew out of disillusioned intellectuals who were looking for a way out of the misery of man. The purpose of the Dada movement was the demolition of all values of modern civilization. Dada erupted in Switzerland under the influence of Tzara and Ball and flourished in Spain, Germany and the U.S. before the end of the war. The motto "we have to destroy everything and reconsider everything" swept through literary circles throughout the Western world. The word "Dada" was seized upon by its members as appropriate for their anti-aesthetic creations and protest activities, all of which reflected their disgust for bourgeois values and despair over World War I. At the start of the Dada movement, many writers generated what could be mildly described as balderdash. In fact, several of Eluard's poems during this period have been described as being "incoherent."

Then, in 1920, Eluard writes a collection of poems Pour vivre ici , "To live here on Earth," which show his opposition to religion and to convention, common to all Dadaists, as well as his passionate attachment to a better life. To achieve the latter, Eluard writes:

Je fis un feu, l'azur m'ayant abandonné, Un feu pour être son ami, Un feu pour m'introduire dans la nuit d'hiver, Un feu pour vivre mieux.

I made a fire, the blue sky having abandoned me, A fire to be his friend, A fire to enter the winter night, A fire to live better.

What a style, what imagery, these few lines characterize the whole of Eluard's poetry. They convey his longing for physical and metaphorical warmth, expressed through the use of every day words, and with his use of images such as fire and sky.

For Eluard, the Dada movement was only a stepping stone to something more positive, rather than Dada's negative approach of rejecting everything. This more enlightened philosophy took the name of Surrealism, and as fellow founder André Breton explains, sought to reach a higher reality. This is the time of l'écriture automatique, "automatic writing," whereby the pen writes words, any word, even contradictory, whether sensical or not. Breton defined it as letting words make love with each other so that wonder emerges.

In 1924, while enjoying his social endeavors in the Surrealism movement, Eluard's personal life takes a turn for the worst. Gala left Eluard for a brief fling with Max Ernst, at which point Eluard decided that he too needed a break, vanishing for six months. Upon his return, around 1926, Eluard publishes a collection of poems under the general title Capitale de la Douleur, "Capital of Sorrow." It was in this collection that Eluard reveals himself as one of the greatest poets of love of all times. Two of his most beloved poems are L'Amoureuse and La Courbe de Tes Yeux.

L'Amoureuse Elle est debout sur mes paupières Et ses cheveux sont dans les miens, Elle a la forme de mes mains, Elle a la couleur de mes yeux, Elle s'engloutit dans mon ombre Comme une pierre sur le ciel. Elle a toujours les yeux ouverts Et ne me laisse pas dormir. Ses rêves en pleine lumiere Font s'évaporer les soleils, Me font rire, pleurer et rire, Parler sans avoir rien a dire La courbe de tes yeux La courbe de tes yeux fait le tour de mon coeur Un rond de dance et de douceur, Auréole du temps, berceau nocturne et sûr, Et si je ne sais plus tout ce que j'ai vécu C'est que tes yeux ne m'ont pas toujours vu. ..... Comme le jour depend de l'innocence Le monde entier dépend de tes yeux purs Et tout mon sang coule dans leurs regards.

Woman in love She is standing on my eyelids And her hair is in mine, She has the shape of my hands, She has the color of my eyes, She is swallowed in my shade, Like a stone against the sky. She will never close her eyes And will never let me sleep; Her dreams in day's full light Make suns evaporate, Make me laugh and cry and laugh, Speak having nothing to say. The curve of your eyes The curve of your eyes goes round my heart, A circle of dancing and sweetness, Halo of time, safe cradle of the night, And if I no longer know all I have lived It is that your eyes have not always seen me. ..... As the days depend on innocence The entire world depends on your pure eyes And all my blood flows through their gaze.

These two poems also reveal one of the most important elements of Eluard's poetry which is the musical character of the words and the way they are brought together. It is almost impossible to read Eluard in silence. To appreciate the musical quality, Eluard's poems must be read aloud and, this, unfortunately gets lost in the translation.

In 1929, after a reconciliation between Gala and Eluard, a new twist develops when the volatile Gala falls in love with Salvador Dali, and ends up marrying him. Ironically, this is the very same year that Eluard publishes L'Amour la Poésie, "Love Poetry" which Eluard described as Ce livre sans fin, "This book with no ending" and dedicated it to Gala.

Et quand tu n'es pas là, Je rêve que je dors je rêve que je rêve.

And when you are not here, I dream that I sleep, I dream that I dream.

There is no translation that can do justice to these melodious sounds.

Eluard always remembers Gala as she guides him all along his life, long after their passion dissolved. Twenty years later, he still writes:

Que ne puis-je encore, comme au temps de ma jeunesse, me déclarer ton disciple, ... Le piano et le silence, l'horizon et l'étendue.

"Why can't I, like in yesteryears be your disciple... We were the piano and the silence, the horizon and the expanse".

However, Eluard's undying love for Gala does not prevent him from falling in love with Maria Benz, an Alsatian woman known as Nusch. Interestingly, the two couples Gala and Dali and Eluard and Nusch remained friends. Nusch is younger than Eluard who was then thirty five years old. Unlike Gala, Nusch is stable, not moody, and provides Eluard with a much needed sense of security.

Eluard writes that life would have been impossible without Nusch. In one of his poems he suggests that the day of Nuschs birth was the day he came to life:

Le 21 juin 1906 a midi Tu m'as donné la vie.

On June the 21st, 1906, at noon, You brought me to life.

Eluard's life did not revolve solely around his love for women and, in fact, he was very much involved socially and politically. In 1927 he joins the French Communist party. The surrealists saw in the Communist ideology a natural extension of their spiritual revolution and goals to "changing the World and shedding the bourgeois values." However, the association of Eluard with the Communists was short-lived as the party grew more and more suspicious of intellectuals. Eluard could not bend to the sectarian rules of the party and he and other surrealists were formally expelled in 1933.

Nevertheless, Eluard remained tied to the political left and participated in peace movements alongside the Communist party. Shortly after the Spanish Civil war broke out in 1936, he wrote a poem, "The Victory of Guenica", which was published in L'Humanité, the French Communist paper. Everyone knows the famous painting Guernica by Picasso. Incidentally, Picasso and Eluard were friends. In a memorable public lecture to lead the social revolution, Eluard called on his fellow poets and writers: "The time has come when all poets have the right and the duty to insist that they are firmly rooted in the life of other people, in the common life of all." This idea was later adopted by Jean-Paul Sartre when he developed the idea of "Committed Literature" or "Littérature engagée".

In the early thirties, Eluard's progressive political awareness, fueled by Nusch's influence, moved him away from Surrealism. While his collections of poems La vie immediate "Life Here and Now" in 1932 and La Rose Publique, "The Public Rose," in 1934 are surrealistic in their style, his love poetry henceforth became more direct.

Le Baiser Odorante et savoureuse Tu dépasses sans te perdre Les frontières de ton corps Tu as enjambé le temps Te voici femme nouvelle Révélée a l'infini

The Kiss Sweet and delectable Without losing your way you overtake Your body's boundaries You have stridden over time New-born woman you are here For infinity to see.

The Public Rose is followed in 1936 by Les yeux fertiles, "The Fertile Eyes." Eluard was fascinated by the woman's eyes which he viewed as reflecting humanity.

On ne peut me connaître Mieux que tu me connais Tes yeux dans lesquels nous dormons Tous les deux Ont fait à mes lumières d'homme Un sort meilleur qu'aux nuits du monde Tes yeux dans lesquels je voyage Ont donné aux gestes des routes Un sens detaché de la terre Dans tes yeux ceux qui nous révèlent Notre solitude infinie Ne sont plus ce qu'ils croyaient être On ne peut te connaître Mieux que je te connais.

I cannot be known Better than you know me Your eyes in which we sleep We together For my lights have made A better fate than for the nights of the World Your eyes in which I travel Have given to the signs along the roads A meaning foreign to the earth In your eyes those who reveal to us Our infinite solitude Are not who they thought themselves to be You cannot be known Better than I know you

Unfortunately, Eluard's love poems came to a standstill in the wake of WWII and the occupation of Paris. Indeed, many of Eluard's poems from the late thirties reflect his scourge for fascism and war. By 1942 we see the collection of poems Poésie et Vérité, "Poetry and Truth." From this collection comes Liberté, "Freedom," or "Liberty", his most famous poem, which has been translated in nearly every language, and is made up of a series of short verses describing simple objects and animals, each one ending with the words J'écris ton nom, "I write your name." Again, there is a strong musical quality of this poem. Every french child knows it by heart, and I'll recite a few selected stanzas:

Sur mes cahiers d'écolier Sur mon pupitre et les arbres Sur le sable sur la neige J'écris ton nom Sur toutes les pages lues Sur toutes les pages blanches Pierre sang papier ou cendre J'écris ton nom Sur les merveilles des nuits Sur le pain blanc des journées Sur les saisons fiançées J'écris ton nom Sur mon chien gourmand et tendre Sur ses oreilles dressées Sur sa patte maladroite J'écris ton nom Sur l'absence sans désir Sur la solitude nue Sur les marches de la mort J'écris ton nom Sur la santé revenue Sur le risque disparu Sur l'espoir sans souvenir J'écris ton nom Et par le pouvoir d'un mot Je recommence ma vie Je suis né pour te connaître Pour te nommer Liberté

On my schoolboy's copy-books On my desk and on the trees On the sand and on the snow I write your name On all the pages read On all the pages blank Stone blood paper or ash I write your name On the wonders of the nights On the white bread of the days On seasons betrothed I write your name On my gluttonous and loving dog On his pricked up ears On his awkward paw I write your name On absence without desire On barren solitude On the steps of death I write your name On health returned On vanished risk On hope without remembrance I write your name And by the power of one word I begin my life again I was born to know you To name you Liberty

Between 1942 and 1946, Eluard publishes no less than 12 collections of poems. The most famous of which include Poésie ininterrompue, "Uninterrupted Poetry" and Le dur désir de durer, "The Hard Wish to Endure," both published in 1946. The latter is a long poem describing Eluard's philosophy of life, "the meaning of his own existence and work, his search for happiness, simplicity, warmth and brotherhood" which ends with his and Nusch's raison d'être:

Nous deux nous ne vivons que pour être fidèles A la vie

We two live only in order to be faithful To life

Suddenly, on November 28th 1946, disaster strikes: while in a trip to Switzerland, Eluard receives news of Nusch's untimely death from a devastating stroke. Eluard became bitter, full of grief with a sense of injustice and revolt, best described with his words:

Vingt-huit novembre mil neuf cent quarante six Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble Voici le jour En trop: le temps déborde Mon amour si léger prend le poids d'un supplice

November twenty eight nineteen forty six We shall not grow old together This is one day Too many: time overflows My love so light now weighs like torture

And torture it was. Eluard becomes terribly depressed, bitter and cankerous. Eluard's depression is short-lived though, and within a year, Eluard publishes poetry again: In 1947, Le temps déborde, "Time overflows"; 1948 brings Poèmes politiques, "Political poems"; and in 1949, Une leçon de morale, "A lesson in morality" where Eluard conveys his love for justice and morality,

Le mal doit être mis au bien

Evil must be turned into good

In 1949, Eluard travels to Mexico to attend the World Peace Council. There, he meets Dominique Lemor, a young french woman, and returns to Paris fully recovered from his loss of Nusch. Dominique becomes his third wife and he dedicates to her Le Phénix, "The Phoenix", symbolizing his return to life out of his deep grief.

In his poem entitled Dominique aujourd'hui presente, "Dominique Present Today," he writes:

Tu es venue, j'étais très triste j'ai dit oui C'est a partir de toi que j'ai dit oui au monde.

You came I was very sad I said yes Starting from you I said yes to the World.

He did indeed say Yes to the World, but not for long as only a year later, Paul dies of a stroke. In his last poem Le château des pauvres, "The Castle of the Poor," he suffuses his boundless faith in youth and in the future:

L'horizon s'offre à la sagesse Le coeur aux yeux de la jeunesse Tout monte rien ne se retire

The horizon unfolds before wisdom The heart before the eyes of youth Everything rises nothing recedes

Although Eluard was quite young and healthy in the last year of his life, he must have sensed his days were counted as he wrote more than ever. His passion for justice and the good life is more clearly expressed, no doubt a conscious effort to leave a crystal clear legacy. Eluard's poetry transcends time as if written following the tragic events of September 11th.

As if he had traveled in time, in his Le visage de la paix, "Face for peace," he writes:

L'amour de la justice et de la liberté A produit un fruit merveilleux Un fruit qui ne se gâte point Car il a le goût du bonheur

The love of justice and freedom Has borne a wondrous fruit A fruit that never spoils For it tastes of happiness

Eluard reveals his neverending faith in humanity. The struggle for justice, peace and happiness is never ending because these are man's most profound desires...

Bonne Justice C'est la chaude loi des hommes Du raisin ils font du vin Du charbon ils font du feu Des baisers ils font des hommes Une loi vieille et nouvelle Qui va se perfectionnant Du fond du coeur de l'enfant Jusqu'à la raison suprême.

Sound Justice It is the warm law of men From grapes they make wine From coal they make fire From kisses they make men A law old and new Self-perfecting always From the depth of a child's heart To the supreme reason.

More than any other poet, Eluard conveyed his passion for love and justice. His universal message -- living well, a voyage without borders -- charts the way to humanity.

Bibliography

Paul Eluard, Poésie et Vérité - Poetry and Truth, translated by R. Penrose & E.L.T. Mesens (Edit. London Gallery) 1944.

Paul Eluard, Le Phénix (Edit. Seghers) 1954.

Paul Eluard, Capitale de la douleur - Capital of Pain, translated by R. M. Weisman (Edit. Grossman Publishers) 1973.

Nugent, R., Paul Eluard (Edit. Twayne Publ.) 1974.

Paul Eluard, La vie immédiate - La rose publique - Les yeux fertiles (Edit. Gallimard) 1978.

Paul Eluard, Capitale de la douleur - L'amour la poésie (Edit. Gallimard) 1978.

Paul Eluard, Last love poems of Paul Eluard, translated by M. Kallet (Edit. Louisiana State University Press) 1980.

Scott, C. , Anthologie Eluard (Edit. Methuen Educational) 1983. Gateau, J-C., Paul Eluard ou le frère voyant, (Edit. R. Laffont) 1988.

10. Paul Eluard, Selected Poems, translated by G. Bowen (Edit. John Calder & Riverrun Press) 1988.

11. Paul Eluard, Poésie ininterrompue II - Unbroken Poetry, translated by G. Bowen (Edit. Bloodaxe Books) 1996.

12. Raymond Jean, Eluard (Edit. Seuil)1997.

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