René Char > Quotes

“I believe in the magic and authority of words.”
― René Char

“Lucidity is the wound closest to the sun.”
― Rene Char

“Eternity is not much longer than life.”
― René Char

“Impose ta chance, serre ton bonheur et va vers ton risque. À te regarder, ils s'habitueront.”
― René Char

“A few beings are neither in society nor in a state of dreaming. They belong to an isolated fate, to an unknown hope. Their open acts seem anterior to time’s first inculpation and to the skies’ unconcern. It occurs to no one to employ them. The future melts before their gaze. They are the noblest and the most disquieting.”
― René Char, Selected Poems

“Children and geniuses know that there is no bridge, only the water that lets itself be crossed.”
― René Char

“A poet must leave traces of his passage, not proof.”
― René Char

“Avec celui que nous aimons, nous avons cessé de parler, et ce n'est pas le silence.
---
Gdy z osobą kochaną przestajemy mówić, nie zapada cisza.”
― René Char

“With my teeth
I have seized life
Upon the knife of my youth.
With my lips today,
With my lips alone...”
― René Char

“Desire, desire which knows, we draw no advantage from our shadows except from some veritable sovereignties accompanied by invisible flames, invisible chains, which, coming to light, step after step, cause us to shine.”
― René Char, Selected Poems

“You only fight well for causes you yourself have shaped, with which you identify—and burn.”
― René Char, Leaves of Hypnos

“Companions in pathos,who barely murmur,go with your lamp spent and return the jewels. A new mystery sings in your bones. Cultivate your legitimate strangeness.”
― René Char

“A poet should leave traces of his passage, not proof.”
― René Char

“Midnight is not in everyman's reach.”
― René Char

“LONG LIVE...

This country is but a wish of the spirit, a counter-sepulcher.

In my country, tender proofs of spring and badly dressed birds are preferred to far-off goals.

Truth waits for dawn beside a candle. Window glass is neglected. To the watchful, what does it matter?

In my country, we don't question a man deeply moved.

There is no malignant shadow on the capsized boat.

A cool hello is unknown in my country.

We borrow only what can be returned increased.

There are leaves, many leaves, on the trees in my country. The branches are free to bear no fruits.

We don't believe in the good faith of the victor.

In my country, we say thank you.”
― René Char, The Dawn Breakers: Les Matinaux

“Il faut être l'homme de la pluie et l'enfant du beau temps.”
― René Char, Le Marteau sans maître

“How can we live without the unknown before us?”
― Rene Char

“Impose your luck, embrace your happiness and go toward your risks: by looking at you, they'll get used to it.”
― René Char, The Dawn Breakers: Les Matinaux

“Cheat at this game.”
― Rene Char

“No man, unless he be dead in living, can feel at anchor in this life.”
― René Char, The Brittle Age and Returning Upland

“How did writing come to me? Like bird’s down on my windowpane, in winter. Just then there rose in the heart a struggle of firebrands, which has, still now, not ended.”
― René Char, Selected Poems

“Dans nos ténèbres, il n'y a pas une place pour la Beauté. Toute la place est pour la Beauté.”
― René Char, Hypnos

“There is only the one like me, the companion man or woman, who can wake me from my torpor, set off the poetry, hurl me against the limits of the old desert for me to triumph over it. No other. Neither sky nor privileged earth, now things which set you to trembling.

Torch, I only waltz with that one.”
― René Char, Selected Poems

“Le réel quelquefois désaltère l'espérance. C'est pourquoi, contre toute attente, l'espérance survit.”
― René Char

“The poet advises: 'Read me. Read me again.'
He does not always come away unscathed from
his page, but like the poor, he knows how to
make use of an olive's eternity.”
― René Char

“Obey your pigs who exist; I obey my gods who do not.”
― René Char

“In my land we don't question someone who has been touched deeply.
There is no malign shadow over capsized boats.”
― René Char

“I believe in the magic and in the authority of words”
― René Char

“In the darkness of our lives, there is not one place for Beauty. The whole place is for Beauty.”
― René Char, Hypnos

“In the streets of the town goes my love. Small matter where
she moves in divided time. She is no longer my love, anyone may speak with her. She remembers no longer: who exactly loved her?
She seeks her equal in glances, pledging. The space she traverses
is my faithfulness. She traces a hope and lightly dismisses it.
She is dominant without taking part.
I live in her depth, a joyous shipwreck. Without her knowing,
my solitude is her treasure. In the great meridian where her soaring
is inscribed, my freedom delves deep in her.
In the streets of the town goes my love. Small matter where
she moves in divided time. She is no longer my love, anyone may
speak with her. She remembers no longer: who exactly loved her,
and lights her from afar, lest she should fall?

from ”Fidelity”
― René Char, Fureur et Mystère