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Breakfast Jacques Prevert

Breakfast Jacques Prevert

Guest poem sent in by Firdaus Janoos

 He poured the coffee
 Into the cup
 He poured the milk
 Into the cup of coffee
 He added the sugar
 To the coffee and milk
 He stirred it
 With a teaspoon
 He drank the coffee
 And put back the cup
 Without speaking to me
 He lit a cigarette
 He blew some rings
 With the smoke
 He flicked the ashes
 Into the ashtray
 Without speaking to me
 Without looking at me
 He got up
 He put his hat
 On his head
 He put on
 His raincoat
 Because it was raining
 He went out
 Into the rain
 Without a word
 Without looking at me
 And I
 I took my head
 In my hands
 And I wept

 (translated by Alastair Campbell)

Jacques Prévert is one of France's most well-known poets, and I was
surprised to see him so well represented on minstrels ;)

The thing I love about him is his remarkable obervation of and sympathy for
people and everyday life. He evokes deep emotions with suprising simplicity
and grace. The poem "Breakfast" published in Paroles, Prévert's first
collection of poetry which appeared late in 1945, is typical of his lucid
and poignant style.

Firdaus

[Martin adds]

As an aside, I'd like to thank reader Ian Barnett (of the Parole
Translations and Literary Agency) for drumming into me the importance of
finding out about and acknowledging the translators of non-English poems we
run. I don't always succeed, I'll admit, but I do always make the effort.
Quoting Ian's spot-on rant about this all-too-common omission:

 This lacuna annexes foreign poets to the English language in a most
 unwholesome, if reflexive, nay, automatic way. It does the invisible
 profession of the literary translator no favours either. And strictly
 it is illegal not to acknowledge provenance -- a law which, for the
 authorship of the translator, is also strangely invisible.

martin

[Links]

Wikipedia entry:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9vert

A collection of Prévert's poems, translated by Campbell:
 http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/vol3no1/campbell.html

Available link for download

Posted by Unknown at 3:44 PM

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Labels: breakfast, jacques, prevert