Pierre REVERDY
translated by Tom Hibbard
SECRET
The empty bell
The dead birds
In the house where everything sleeps
Nine hours
The world stands still
It seems someone has died
The trees look as though they are smiling
A drop of water hangs at the end of each leaf
A cloud crosses the night
Outside a door a man sings
The window opens without a sound
—1918
NOMAD
The door that won't open
The faded hand
Beside a broken glass
The lamp smokes
The sparks start fires
The sky is blacker
From the roof
Some animals
Without their shadows
A look
A somber stain
The house where no one comes
—1918
THE SOUND OF THE BELL
All grows quiet
The wind passes singing about it
And the trees shiver
The animals are dead
There is no longer anyone
Look
The stars have stopped shining
The world no longer turns
A head is bowed
Hair sweeps across the night
The last bell that remains standing
Rings midnight
—1918
SURPRISE FROM ABOVE
At the end of the corridor doors open
A surprise waits for those who pass
Some friends can be found there
There is a lamp that one does not light
And your unique shining eye
We descend the stairs barefooted
There is a burglar or the last to arrive
That no one waits for any longer
The moon hides itself in a pail of water
An angel on the roof plays with a hoop
The house collapses
In the stream is a flowing song
—1916
SILENCE
Someone was still behind there speaking
Men passed two by two
Perhaps it was a prayer
That climbed the heart of everyone
Between walls in the clearing
A voice echoed on the water
The bird took a different route
And woke up in the morning
with a gloomy head
No one knew the number
Of those that passed
Between the wall and the garden
When the night falls and becomes hard
In the distance
You hear the whistle of a train
—1918
MONOTONOUS DAY
Because of the water the roof is slippery
Because of the rain everything thaws
The oil of alcohol and my weak light
Have burned down the house
A garden without birds
A garden without noise
You go to gather the black flowers
The leaves are never green
All the thorns are red
And your hands are covered with blood
In the central alley a parade passes
By the window of the dead
Where a candle burns
It brings out a slow song
It was her and the other
The neighbor also
Everyone sings their heads off
And on the stairway where one jokes
Someone falling utters a cry
A dog runs away
One only hears the rain cry
—1916
THE FINISHED RUIN
I have lost the secret given me
I no longer know anything
For a moment I believed that that could go
Nothing remains any longer
This is a man without feet who wishes to run
A woman with no head who would like to talk
A child with hardly any eyes only for crying
However I have seen you depart
You were already distant
A trumpet sounded
A mob shouted
And you, you did not turn around
We have a long road to follow, step by step
We will walk it together
I detest your smiling face
The hand that you extend to me
And your sucked in stomach so old
You are just like me
On my return I did not receive anything
No one gives me anything
All is spent
A useless piece of decoration
In the night
—1916
FACADE
The hobo strikes the hard sun with his staff
In this place
In front of the door where a furious dog snarls and
bites
The family favorite sleeps
Behind curtains
The shutters close
The unknown of the road that everyone travels
A threatening cry in the night
All the thieves of dreams slink away
They are scattered among a few books
The roads have become safer
And our faces have taken on a pale tranquility
One no longer fears danger and one knows death
In the sun
We imitate people from hot climates
And forget not to trust nature
And the times shed this too-long peace
That looks like the end of the world
We are all part of the source of civilization
One will understand too late the danger of imitation
The strange combat no longer exists
The principle characters are lost
But the closed house is like ourselves
An intimacy that no one knows
Searches outside curiosity
And our hypocrisy
the fear of each other
The dog guards it
—1916