Andre Breton Poems

(Translated from the French by Edouard Rodti)

My wife with the hair of a wood fire
With the thoughts of heat lightning
...

Less time than it takes to say it, less tears than it takes to die; I've taken account of everything,
there you have it. I've made a census of the stones, they are as numerous as my fingers and some
...

Always for the first time
Hardly do I know you by sight
You return at some hour of the night to a house at an angle to my window
A wholly imaginary house
...

I attach no importance to life
I pin not the least of life's butterflies to importance
I do not matter to life
...

La voyageuse qui traverse les Halles à la tombée de l'été
Marchait sur la pointe des pieds
Le désespoir roulait au ciel ses grands arums si beaux
Et dans le sac à main il y avait mon rêve ce flacon de sels
...

We are the birds always charmed by you from the top of these belvederes
And that each night form a blossoming branch between your
...

It was going on five in the morning
The ship of steam stretched its chain to shatter the windows
And outside
A glowworm
...