Alcools
1913
Alcools is the book that cracked poetry open for the twentieth century. Published in 1913, Guillaume Apollinaire's debut collection announced a radical new voice: one that could hold the noise of Paris and the silence of memory in the same breath. These poems move through streets and seasons, lovers and strangers, the sacred and the profane, building a portrait of modern consciousness in fragments and flashes. Zone, the opening poem, has been called the great poem of early Modernism itself, an epic meditation on a world where the ancient sacred has dissolved into the industrial city. Apollinaire's innovations would go on to shape the New York School, the Beats, and virtually every poet who followed who wanted to write about the present moment without lies. This is poetry that refuses to choose between beauty and the raw texture of experience, between what was and what is. For readers who want to understand how Modernism began, and for anyone who loves language that burns.
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“Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la SeineEt nos amoursFaut-il qu'il m'en souvienneLa joie venait toujours après la peineVienne la nuit sonne l'heureLes jours s'en vont je demeureLes mains dans les mains restons face à faceTandis que sousLe pont de nos bras passedes éternels regards l'onde si lasseVienne la nuit sonne l'heureLes jours s'en vont je demeurel'amour s'en va comme cette eau couranteL'amour s'en vaComme la vie est lenteEt comme l'Espérance est violenteVienne la nuit sonne l'heureLes jours s'en vont je demeurePassent les jours et passent les semainesNi temps passéNi les amours reviennentSous le pont Mirabeau coule la SeineVienne la nuit sonne l'heureLes jours s'en vont je demeure””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“J'ai cueilli ce brin de bruyèreL'automne est morte souviens-t'enNous ne nous verrons plus sur terreOdeur du temps brin de bruyèreEt souviens-toi que je t'attends””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“Je souhaite dans ma maison:Une femme ayant sa raison.Un chat passant parmi les livres.Des amis en toute saisonSans lesquels je ne peux pas vivre.””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“Your life is a painting in a dark museumand sometimes you examine it closely””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“I have drunk you and my thirst survivesBut now I know the flavor of the cosmos””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“Shall we the shipwrecked drown and dream A further voyage to farther stars””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“My dreaming thoughts go barefoot in the evening.””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“J'ai tout donné au soleil. Tout sauf mon ombre””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
“My Autumn eternal O my spiritual season””
— Guillaume Apollinaire
