Pockets of time caught in art trapped under pigment line and colour from a different age : after the cave came canvas but it’s the same process time dedicated to capturing time a succession of moments or of perceptions or of intuitions or simply of actions but all shaped thoughts feelings observations and there’s a single narrative running through it all this is what it is to be human to be alive or at least an aspect of it
Nerve bone flesh blood all from sunlight a universe that suddenly comes alive the building blocks hydrogen and carbon and the question is what ignites it all ? fission and reproduction the energy devoted to constant reinvention quantum life in which the mind makes all the difference timeless waves of love
In 1936 Samuel Beckett was a contributing translator to Thorns of Thunder, a brief selection of the poems of Paul Eluard.
Later that year Beckett wrote to his friend and fellow translator, Tom McGreevy:
“My copy of Eluard came, duly signed by author & all available translators. He does come through after a fashion, the frailty & nervousness. But no attempt seems to have been made to translate the pauses. Like Beethoven played strictly to time.”
When you’re old, you shouldn’t go out You should stay indoors by the fire, With warm clothes and the day tempered Each evening by the night and the lamplight.
When you’re old, you shouldn’t read anymore. Words are bad and meant for other lives. You should stay in, your eyes glazed, resigned Motionless, in a corner.
When you’re old, you shouldn’t talk anymore You mustn’t sleep anymore. . . You must remember That others are constantly thinking: “When you’ve seen it all, you’re miserable And when you’re old, you’ve seen it all!”
Paul Eluard (1895-1952)
Translation by John Lyons
French text :
Je ne peux rien faire, je ne peux rien voir.
Quand on est vieux, il ne faut plus sortir Il faut rester dans la chambre avec le feu, Avec de chauds vêtements et le jour adouci Chaque soir par la nuit et la clarté des lampes.
Quand on est vieux, il ne faut plus lire. Les mots sont mauvais et pour d’autres vies. Il faut rester, les yeux perdus, l’air résigné Dans un coin, sans bouger.
Quand on est vieux, il ne faut plus parler Il ne faut plus dormir. . . Il faut se souvenir Que les autres pensent sans cesse: « Quand on a tout vu, on est misérable Et quand on est vieux c’est qu’on a tout vu! »
Paul Eluard (from Le devoir et l’inquiétude, 1916-1917)
Say that all things attract say that there is method in beauty that there is purpose too and all art is found actively discovered and chosen and pulled out from anonymity and displayed paraded before the senses and that there is always measurement and dimension intensities and degrees of subtlety and that sounds and colours and textures and shapes and tastes on the tongue all rhyme that the eye and the ear bind it all together and have done so from the moment that the mind was born and with it love and the walls of caves were filled with sensual narrative and that dance and music and song are all in the nature of breath
johnjosephlyons 