Paul Éluard (born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (December 14, 1895 – November 18, 1952), was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.
LIBERTY
Paul Eluard
On my school notebooks
On my school desk and the trees
On the sand on the snow
I write your name
On all the pages read
On all the blank pages
Stone blood paper or ash
I write your name
On the golden images
On the warriors’ arms
On the kings’ crown
I write your name
On the jungle and the desert
On the nests on the brooms
On the echo of my childhood
I write your name
On the wonders of the nights
On the white bread of the days
On the engaged seasons
I write your name
On all my rags of azure
On the pond mildewed sun
On the lake moon alive
I write your name
On the fields on the horizon
On the birds’ wings
And on shadows’ mill
I write your name
On every puff of dawn
On the sea on the boats
On the insane mountain
I write your name
On the foam of the clouds
On the sweat of the storm
On the thick and dull rain
I write your name
On the scintillating figures
On the colors’ bells
On the physical truth
I write your name
On the awake paths
On the unfurled roads
On the overflowing squares
I write your name
On the lamp that comes alight
On the lamp that dies out
On my combined houses
I write your name
On the fruit cut in halves
Of the mirror and of my room
On my empty shell bed
I write your name
On my gourmand and tender dog
On his pricked up ears
On his clumsy paw
I write your name
On the springboard of my door
On the familiar objects
On the flood of the blessed fire
I write your name
On any granted flesh
On my friends’ forehead
On every hand held out
I write your name
On the window of the surprises
On the attentive lips
Well above the silence
I write your name
On my destroyed shelters
On my crumbled beacons
On the walls of my boredom
I write your name
On the absence without desire
On the bare solitude
On the steps of death
I write your name
On the health returned
On the risk disappeared
On hope without remembrance
I write your name
And by the power of a word
I start my life again
I was born to know you
To name you
Liberty.
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LIGHT THAT GOES
Paul Eluard
Your voice, your eyes
your hands, your lips
Our silences, our words
Light that goes
light that returns
A single smile between us both
In quest of knowledge
I watched night create day
while we seemed unchanged
beloved of all, beloved of one alone
your mouth silently promised to be happy
Away, away, says hate
never, never, says love
A caress leads us from our childhood
Increasingly I see the human form
as a lover’s dialogue
The heart has but one mouth
Everything ordered by chance
All words without aforethought
Sentiments adrift
Men roam the city, a glance, a word
Because I love you, everything moves
We must advance to live
Aim straight for those you love
I went towards you, endlessly towards the light
If you smile, it is to enfold me all the better
The rays of your arms pierce the mist.