2024-01-01 11:22:00
Editions Seghers are publishing in the form of a very beautiful free object one of the surrealist’s “midnight poems” illustrated by the painter. Almost an instruction manual to keep morale up.
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While the world is heating up and the war is raging, while our politicians shine, let’s say, with difficulty in their loftiness, how can we still celebrate the new year? One thing is certain, poetry will not be enough to save either democracy or the polar bears, contrary to the injunctions given to it here and there. But in all its practical uselessness, it can at least provide a little breath, and that’s what we wish you the best for the year to come.
In 1936 and 1937, Robert Desnos attempted to write a text every evening before going to sleep. He transcribed them, which is not by chance, in 1940, in occupied France – a chronology which gives them an accent of energy and hope despite everything.
Unpublished, these formidable Midnight Poems were published in 2023 by Seghers editions and we told you about them then. For the holidays, the same house is offering one of these poems, illustrated by a 1953 gouache by Marc Chagall, in the form of a very beautiful object book. It is with this text, dated by Desnos of March 27, 1936, that we propose to open 2024.
Robert Desnos, ill. Marc Chagall, More alive than today, Seghers editions, €38.
“I’ll get up tomorrow morning
Earlier than today
The sun tomorrow morning
Will be warmer than today
I will be stronger tomorrow morning
Stronger than today
I will be cheerful tomorrow morning
More cheerful than today
I will have tomorrow morning
More friends than today
And although tomorrow morning
Death is closer than today
I will be tomorrow morning
More alive, more alive than today”
#Desnos #Chagall #alive #today #Libération