Louis Aragon was born on 3rd October, 1897. Here is a classic poem by him to celebrate this powerhouse of the surrealist movement in France. The poem advocates for the power of love to create a better world, offering solace and hope to those who suffer.
What Elsa Says
You tell me these verses are dark and maybe
That they are less, however, than I wanted
On stolen happiness let’s close our window
Lest day break in
And never veil the photo that you liked
You tell me Our love if it inaugurates a world
It’s a world where we like to talk simply
Leave it Lancelot leave the Round Table
Yseut Viviane Esclarmonde
Who for mirror had a deforming sword
Read the love in my eyes and not in the numbers
Don’t intoxicate your heart with their ancient philters
The ruins at noon are just rubble
It’s the hour when we have two shadows
To better embarrass the art of sciomancers
Would the night more than the day have charms
Shame on those whom a pure sky does not make sigh
Shame on those whom a child suddenly disarms
Shame on those who have no tears
For a song in the street a flower in the meadows
You tell me leave the orchestra of thunders for a bit
Because these days there are poor people
Who can’t search in dictionaries
Would like ordinary words
That they can whisper to each other while thinking
If you want me to love you bring me pure water
To which go their desires to quench
May your poem be the blood of your cut
Like a roofer
Sing for the birds that have no place to nest
May your poem be the hope that says To be continued
At the bottom of the sinister soap opera of our steps
That a human voice triumphs over the brass
And give a reason to live
To those whom everything seemed to invite to death
May your poem be in places without love
Where we toil where we bleed where we die of cold
Like a whispered air that makes the feet less heavy
A black coffee at daybreak
A friend met on the Stations of the Cross
For whom would singing really be worth it
If it’s not for those you often dream of
And whose memory is like the sound of chains
The night waking up in your veins
And who speaks to your heart like the wind to the sailboat
You tell me If you want me to love you and I love you
It is necessary that this portrait that of me you will paint
Has like a living worm at the bottom of the chrysanthemum
A theme hidden in its theme
And marry to love the sun that will come
Read More : After Fifty Years
Image Credit : Bing
