Benjamin Péret

Benjamin Péret has been lurking in my subconscious all of my life. When I read the volume "From the Hidden Storehouse" in the Field Translation Series from Oberlin, I entered the frightening, hilarious room which contains my dreams' nightmares. The English translation by Keith Hollman sizzles and the book contains works from four other volumes by Péret, offering a rich slice of the work by a poet who never abandoned surrealism.

Le Grand Jeu (The Big Flame) 1928

De Derrière Les Fagots (From the Hidden Storehouse) 1934

Je Ne Mange Pas De Ce Pain-Là (I Won't Stoop to That) 1936

Je Sublime (I Sublimate) 1936

Un Point C'est Tout (That's All There Is To It) 1947

The introduction to the text by Charles Simic not only sheds light on the shadowy world of Péret, but on the former poet laureate's own work as well.

This website is a treasure chest full of details on the work and life of Péret.  

One poem from the Oberlin collection.  (May the copyright gods protect me.)

A Thousand Times

for Elsie

Among the gilded debris of the gasworks

you will find a chocolate bar that will flee at your 

approach

If you run as fast as an aspirin bottle

you will end up way behind the chocolate

which upsets the countryside

like shoes with holes

on which a traveling cloak is thrown

so the passers-by aren't frightened by the spectacle

of this nudity

which makes the teeth chatter in the boxes of face

powder

and the leaves fall from trees like factory smoke-

stacks

And the train passes without stopping at the little

station

because it isn't hungry or thirsty

because it's raining and it doesn't have an umbrella

because the cows haven't come back yet

because the route isn't safe and it doesn't like

to meet drunks or thieves or cops

But if larks lined up at the kitchen doors

to be roasted

if water refused to cut the wine

and if I had five francs

There would be something new under the sun

there would be loaves of bread on castors which 

would smash in the police stations

there would be nurseries for growing beards

where sparrows would raise silkworms

there would be in the hollow of my hand

a small cold Chinese lantern

gilded like a fried egg

and so light that the soles of my shoes would fly off

like a false nose

so the bottom of the sea would be a telephone

booth

where no one would ever receive a call

Comments

[Gérard Roche]

Bonjour,

La réédition du recueil de Benjamin Péret: Je ne mange pas de ce pain-là (éditions Syllepse) est disponible en librairie.
Voir la présentation : http://www.benjamin-peret.org/association/je-ne-mange-pas-de-ce-pain-la.html

Le catalogue Benjamin Péret et les Amériques est également disponible auprès de l'Association des amis de Benjamin Péret. Voir le sommaire et la présentation ici: http://www.benjamin-peret.org/benjamin-peret/archives/peret-ameriques-catalogue.html

Association des amis de Benjamin Péret
50, rue de la Charité
69 002 Lyon
France
09 75 80 19 72
http://www.benjamin-peret.org

[AJF 20]

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