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Blaise Cendrars was a pioneer of modernist literature. The full range of his poetry--from classical rhymed alexandrines to "cubist" modernism, and from feverish, even visionary, depression to airy good humor--offers a challenge no translator has accepted until now.
Here, for the first time in English translation, is the complete poetry of a legendary twentieth-century French writer. Cendrars, born Frederick Louis Sauser in 1887, invented his life as well as his art. His adventures took him to Russia during the revolution of 1905 (where he traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway), to New York in 1911, to the trenches of World War I (where he lost his right arm), to Brazil in the 1920s, to Hollywood in the 1930s, and back and forth across Europe.
With Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob he was a pioneer of modernist literature, working alongside artist friends such as Chagall, Delaunay, Modigliani, and Léger, composers Eric Satie and Darius Milhaud, and filmmaker Abel Gance. The range of Cendrars's poetry--from classical rhymed alexandrines to "cubist" modernism, and from feverish, even visionary, depression to airy good humor--offers a challenge no translator has accepted until now.
Here, for the first time in English translation, is the complete poetry of a legendary twentieth-century French writer. Cendrars, born Frederick Louis Sauser in 1887, invented his life as well as his art. His adventures took him to Russia during the revolution of 1905 (where he traveled on the Trans-Siberian Railway), to New York in 1911, to the trenches of World War I (where he lost his right arm), to Brazil in the 1920s, to Hollywood in the 1930s, and back and forth across Europe.
With Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob he was a pioneer of modernist literature, working alongside artist friends such as Chagall, Delaunay, Modigliani, and Léger, composers Eric Satie and Darius Milhaud, and filmmaker Abel Gance. The range of Cendrars's poetry--from classical rhymed alexandrines to "cubist" modernism, and from feverish, even visionary, depression to airy good humor--offers a challenge no translator has accepted until now.
54 pages, Mimeo book/side-stapled
First published January 1, 1924
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Blaise Cendrars
276 books279 followersFrédéric Louis Sauser, better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss novelist and poet naturalized French in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the modernist movement.
His father, an inventor-businessman, was Swiss, his mother Scottish. He spent his childhood in Alexandria, Naples, Brindisi, Neuchâtel, and numerous other places, while accompanying his father, who endlessly pursued business schemes, none successfully.
At the age of fifteen, Cendrars left home to travel in Russia, Persia, China while working as a jewel merchant; several years later, he wrote about this in his poem, Transiberien. He was in Paris before 1910, where he got in touch with several names of Paris' bélle époque: Guillaume Apollinaire, Modigliani, Marc Chagall and many more. Cendrars then traveled to America, where he wrote his first long poem Pâques à New-York. The next year appeared The Transsibérien.
When he came back to France, I World War was started and he joined the French Foreign Legion. He was sent to the front line in the Somme where from mid-December 1914 until February 1915. During the attacks in Champagne in September 1915 that Cendrars lost his right arm. He described this war experience in the books La Main coupée.
After the war he returned to Paris, becaming an important part of the artistic community in Montparnasse. There, among others, used to meet with other writers such as Henry Miller, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway.
During the 1920's he published two long novels, Moravagine and Les Confessions de Dan Yack. Into the 1930’s published a number of “novelized” biographies or volumes of extravagant reporting, such as L’Or, based on the life of John August Sutter, and Rhum, “reportage romance” dealing with the life and trials of Jean Galmont, a misfired Cecil Rhodes of Guiana.
La Belle Epoque was the great age of discovery in arts and letters. Cendrars, very much of the epoch, was sketched by Caruso, painted by Léon Bakst, by Léger, by Modigliani, by Chagall; and in his turn helped discover Negro art, jazz, and the modern music of Les Six. His home base was always Paris, for several years in the Rue de Savoie, later, for many years, in the Avenue Montaigne, and in the country, his little house at Tremblay-sur Mauldre (Seine-et-Oise), though he continued to travel extensively. He worked for a short while in Hollywood in 1936, at the time of the filming of Sutter’s Gold. From 1924 to 1936, went so constantly to South America. This life globertrottering life was pictured in his book Bourlinguer, published in 1948.
Another remarkable works apparead in the 40s were L’Homme Foudroyé (1945), La Main Coupée (1946), Le Lotissement du Ciel (1949), that constitute his best and most important work. His last major work was published in 1957, entitled Trop, C’est Trop.
==========
Sources:
- http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_...
His father, an inventor-businessman, was Swiss, his mother Scottish. He spent his childhood in Alexandria, Naples, Brindisi, Neuchâtel, and numerous other places, while accompanying his father, who endlessly pursued business schemes, none successfully.
At the age of fifteen, Cendrars left home to travel in Russia, Persia, China while working as a jewel merchant; several years later, he wrote about this in his poem, Transiberien. He was in Paris before 1910, where he got in touch with several names of Paris' bélle époque: Guillaume Apollinaire, Modigliani, Marc Chagall and many more. Cendrars then traveled to America, where he wrote his first long poem Pâques à New-York. The next year appeared The Transsibérien.
When he came back to France, I World War was started and he joined the French Foreign Legion. He was sent to the front line in the Somme where from mid-December 1914 until February 1915. During the attacks in Champagne in September 1915 that Cendrars lost his right arm. He described this war experience in the books La Main coupée.
After the war he returned to Paris, becaming an important part of the artistic community in Montparnasse. There, among others, used to meet with other writers such as Henry Miller, John Dos Passos and Ernest Hemingway.
During the 1920's he published two long novels, Moravagine and Les Confessions de Dan Yack. Into the 1930’s published a number of “novelized” biographies or volumes of extravagant reporting, such as L’Or, based on the life of John August Sutter, and Rhum, “reportage romance” dealing with the life and trials of Jean Galmont, a misfired Cecil Rhodes of Guiana.
La Belle Epoque was the great age of discovery in arts and letters. Cendrars, very much of the epoch, was sketched by Caruso, painted by Léon Bakst, by Léger, by Modigliani, by Chagall; and in his turn helped discover Negro art, jazz, and the modern music of Les Six. His home base was always Paris, for several years in the Rue de Savoie, later, for many years, in the Avenue Montaigne, and in the country, his little house at Tremblay-sur Mauldre (Seine-et-Oise), though he continued to travel extensively. He worked for a short while in Hollywood in 1936, at the time of the filming of Sutter’s Gold. From 1924 to 1936, went so constantly to South America. This life globertrottering life was pictured in his book Bourlinguer, published in 1948.
Another remarkable works apparead in the 40s were L’Homme Foudroyé (1945), La Main Coupée (1946), Le Lotissement du Ciel (1949), that constitute his best and most important work. His last major work was published in 1957, entitled Trop, C’est Trop.
==========
Sources:
- http://www.theparisreview.org/intervi...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_...
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January 24, 2022
West
I. Roof Garden
For weeks the elevators have hoisted hosted crates crates of loam
At last
By dint of money and patience
The shrubbery is blooming
The lawn is a delicate green
A spring gushes out between the rhododendrons and camellias
On top of the building the building of bricks and steel
Evenings
The waiters in white serious as diplomats lean over the chasm which is the town
And the gardens are bright with a million little coloured lights
I believe Madam murmured the young man in a voice vibrant with restrained passion
I believe we will be fine here
And with a large gesture he swept the large sea
The coming and going
The navigational light of the giant ships
The gigantic Statue of Liberty
And the enormous panorama of the town cut with perpendicular bands of darkness and hard light
The old scientist and the two multimillionaires are alone n the terrace
Magnificent garden
Masses of flowers
Starry sky
The three elderly gentlemen stand in silence listening to the laughter and happy voices rising from bright windows
And to the murmured song of the sea at the end of the record
II. On the Hudson
The electric boat glides silently among the numerous ships anchored in the immense estuary and flying the flags of every nation in the world
The great clippers loaded with wood from Canada were unfurling their gigantic sails
The iron steamers were shooting torrents of black smoke
Dockhands of all races and nationalities were bustling around in the din of foghorns and whistles from factories and trains
The elegant launch is made entirely of teak
In the centre rises a sort of cabin something like those on Venetian gondolas.
III. Amphitryon
After the dinner served in the winter gardens among clumps of lemon trees of jasmine of orchids
There is a dance on the park lawn beneath bright lights
But the gifts sent to Miss Isadora are the main attraction
Of special interest is a pigeon blood ruby whose size and brilliance are unequaled
None of these young ladies own one to which it might be compared
Elegantly dressed
Skillful detectives mixing among the guests watch over that gem and protect it
IV. Office
Radiators and fans running on liquid air
Twelve telephones and five radios
Wonderful electric files contain endless industrial and scientific dossiers on every kind of business
The only place the multimillionaire feels at home is in this office
The big plate-glass windows overlook the park and the city
In the evening the mercury vapor lights shed their soft bluish glimmer
This is the origin of the orders to buy and sell which sometimes cause the Stock Markets of the entire world to crash
V. Girl
Light dress in crêpe de chine
The girl
Elegance and wealth
Hair a tawny blond where matched pearls shine
Calm and regular features that reflect frankness and kindness
Her big almond green sea-blue eyes are bright and bold
She has this fresh and velvety complexion with a special pinkness that seems to be the prerogative of American girls
VI. Young Man
He's the Beau Brummell of Fifth Avenue
Tie of gold cloth sprinkled with little diamond flowers
Suit a pink and violet metallic material
Ankle-boots in real sharkskin with each button a little black pearl
He sports fine asbestos flannel pajamas a glass suit a crocodile-skin vest
His valet soaps his gold pieces
He never has anything but perfumed brand-new bills in his wallet
VII. Work
Some crooks have just blown up the railway bridge
The coaches caught fire at the bottom of the valley
The injured swim in the boiling water from the disemboweled locomotive
Living torches run among the debris and spewing steam
Other coaches stay hanging 60 yards up
Men with flashlights and acetylene torches follows the trail down the valley
And the rescue is organized quietly and quickly
Under the cover of rushes of reeds of willows the waterfowl make a nice rustling noise
Dawn is long in coming
But already a team of a hundred carpenters called by telegraph and come by special train is busy rebuilding the bridge
Bang bang-bang
Pass me the nails
VIII. Tresle Work
Should you come to a river or a deep valley
You go over it on a wooden bridge until the company receipt allow them to build one of stone or iron
The American carpenters are unrivaled in the art of building them
They begin by laying a bed of hard rock
Then a first support goes up
Which supports a second then a third then a forth
As many as are necessary to reach the height of the bank
On the last support two beams
On the two beams two rails
These daring constructions are reinforced by neither Saint Andrew;s crosses nor T girders
They are held only by a few smaller beams and a few spikes that maintain the gauge of the trestles
And that's it
It's a bridge
A beautiful bridge
IX. The Thousand Islands
Around here the countryside is one of the most beautiful in North America
The immense sheet of lake is a blue that's almost white
Hundred and hundred of little green islands float on the calm surface of the clear water
The delicious cottages built in bright-coloured brick give this landscape the appearance of an enchanted kingdom
Luxurious maple mahogany boats elegantly decked out with flags and covered with multicolour awning come and go from one island to another
Any suggestion of fatigue of labour of poverty is missing from this gracious setting for multimillionaires
The sun disappears on the horizon of Lake Ontario
The clouds bathe their folds in vats of purple violet scarlet and orange
What a beautiful evening murmur Andrea and Frederika seated on the terrace of a medieval castle
And the ten thousand motorboats reply to their ecstasy
X. Laboratory
Visiting the greenhouses
The thermo-syphon maintains a constant temperature
The soil is saturated with formic acid with manganese and other substances which give the vegetation tremendous strength
In one day the leaves grow the flowers bloom and the fruits ripen
Thanks to an ingenious device the roots are bathed in an electric current which guarantees this monstrous growth
Anti-hail guns explode nimbus and cumulus
We go back to town across the barren waste
The morning is radiant
The dark purple heather and golden broom still haven't shed their metals
The seagulls trace big circles in the light blue sky
*
Far West
I. Cucumingo
The San Bernadino hacienda
It was built in the middle of a lush valley fed by a multitude of small streams that run down from the surrounding mountains
The roofs are tile red in the shade of sycamores and laurels
Trout thrive in the streams
Immense flocks grace untended in the lush meadows
The orchards are thick with fruit pears apples grapes pineapples figs oranges
And in the truck gardens
Old World vegetables grow beside those of the tropics
Plenty of game here
The California quail
The rabbit known as the cottontail
The long-eared hare known as the jackass
The prarie hen the turtledove the partridge
The wild duck and wild goose
The antelope
It's true you still see wildcats and rattlesnakes
But there aren't any pumas anymore
II. Dorypha
On holidays
When the Natives and vaqueros get drunk on whiskey and pulque
Dorypha dances
To the sound of the Mexican guitar
Such exciting habaneras
That people come from miles around to admire her
No woman knows as well as she
How to drape the silk mantilla
And to fix her blond hair
With a ribbon
A comb
A flower
III. The Mockingbird
The heat is staggering
Balcony shaded with trumpet vines and purplish honeysuckle
In the big silence of dozing countryside
You can hear
The gurgling of little rills
The distant mooing of big herds of grazing cattle
The song of the nightingale
The crystal-clear hissing of big bullfrogs
The hooting of the owl
And the call of the mockingbird in the cactus
IV. Mushroom Town
Toward the end of the year 1911 a group of Yankee financiers decide to build a town way out west at the foot of the Rocky Mountains
Not even a month goes by and there are three Union railroads although still no houses
Workers pour in from everywhere
As early as the second month three churches are built and five theatres are going full blast
Around a square that still has a few nice trees a forest of metal girders rings day and night with pounding hammers
Winches
Machines huffing and puffing
The steel skeletons of houses thirty stories high start lining up
Brick walls or often plain aluminum sheets fill in the interstices of the framework
In a few hours reinforced concrete is poured using the Edison method
Because of a sort of superstition no one wants to christen the town and a contest is announced with a raffle and prizes given by the town's biggest newspaper which is also looking for a name
V. Club
Although it's on the official map of the town this street still consists only of plank fences and piles of rubbish
The only way to get across the street is by hopping in zigzags over the mud and puddles
At the end o this unfinished boulevard lit by powerful arc lights is the Black Bean Club which is also a matrimonial agency
Wearing cowboy hats or wool caps with earflaps
Faces hard as nails
Men get out of the 60-horsepower cars they're breaking in and put their names on the list look through the photograph album
Choose their fiancées who are cabled to embark at Cherbourg on the Kaiser Wilhelm and who sail full steam ahead
Mostly German girls
A stable-boy in black wearing swansdown shoes opens the door with a glacial propriety and gives the newcomer a suspicious once-over
I drink a whiskey cocktail then another then another
Then a mint julep a mother's milk a prairie oyster a nightcap
VI. Squaw's Wigwam
When you go through the rickety door made of boards ripped from packing crates and with pieces of leather for hinges
You find yourself in a low room
Smoky
Smell of rotting fish
Stench of exquisitely rancid fat
Barbaric panoply
War bonnets of eagle feathers necklaces of puma teeth or bear claws
Bows arrows tomahawks
Moccasins
Seed and glass bead bracelets
You also see
Some scalping knives one or two old-fashioned carbines a flintlock pistol elk and reindeer antlers a whole collection of little embroidered tobacco pouches
Then three very old soft stone peace pipes with reed stems
Eternally bent over the hearth
The hundred-year-old proprietress of this establishment is preserved like a ham smoked and dried and curd like her hundred-year-old pipe and the black of her mouth and the black hole of her eye
VII. City of Frisco
It's an old hulk eaten away by rust
Twenty times in dry dock and the engine makes only 7 or 8 knots
And to economize they burn old half-used cinders and cast-off coal
They hoist some makeshift sails every time there's a puff of wind
With his scarlet face his bushy eyebrows his pimply nose Captain Hopkins is a real sailor
Little silver rings pierce his ears
This ship is loaded exclusively with the caskets of Chinese who died in America but who wanted to be buried in their native land
Oblong boxes red or light blue or covered with golden inscriptions
Now that's a type of merchandise illegal to transport
VIII. Vancouver
In the thick fog that packs the boats and docks you can barely hear the bell ringing ten o'clock
The docks are deserted and the town is fast asleep
You walk along the low and sandy coast where a glacial wind is blowing and the long Pacific waves are breaking
That pale spot in the murky shadows is the station for the Canadian Northern the Grand Trunk
And those bluish halos in the wind are steamers bound for the Klondike Japan and the East Indies
It's so dark I can barely make out the street signs as I lug my suitcase around looking for a cheap hotel
Everyone has embarked
The oarsmen are bent over the oars and the heavy boat loaded to the gunwales pushes into the high waves
From time to time a little hunchback at the tiller changes their course
Steering his way through the mist guided by a foghorn
They bump against the dark mass of the ship and Siberian huskies rise on the starboard quarter
Washed out in the gray-white-yellow
As if they were loading fog
*
Aleutian Islands
I.
Steep cliffs facing the icy polar winds
Inland there are fertile meadows
Reindeer elk musk-ox
The arctic fox the beaver
Fish in streams
A low beach has been used as a seal fur farm
At the top of the cliff they harvest eider nests whose feathers are worth a fortune
II.
Huge sturdy buildings where a rather large number of traders live
All the way around a little garden containing very kind of vegetable capable of withstanding the climate
Mountain ash pine arctic willow
Border of heather and alpine plants
III.
Bay scattered with small rocky islands
The seal sunbathe in groups of five or six
Or stretch out on the sand
When they play they give a kind of guttural grunt like barking
Next to the Inuit hut there is a lean-to where the skins are prepared
*
River
Mississippi
Right here the river's almost as wide as a lake
The yellowish muddy water rolls between two marshy banks
Aquatic plants extending the acreage of the cotton fields
Here and there appear the towns and villages lurking back in some little bay with their factories with their tall black chimneys with their long piers on pilings running way out into the water
Overwhelming heat
The ship's bell rings for lunch
The passengers sport checked suits blinding ties sunset-red vests like flaming cocktails and Louisiana hot sauce
You see a lot of crocodiles
The young ones frisky and wriggling
The big ones their backs covered with greenish moss just drifting along
The luxuriant vegetation indicates the approach of the tropical zone
Gigantic bamboos palm trees tulip trees laurels cedars
The river itself is now twice as wide
Dotted with floating islands from which our boat scares up clouds of waterfowl
Steamboats sailboats barges boats of all kinds and enormous rafts
A yellow steam rises from the overheated river
Now there are hundred of crocs thrashing around us
You hear the dry snapping of their jaws and you see very clearly their wild little eyes
The passengers get a kick our of firing into them with hunting rifles
When a sharpshooter kills or mortally wounds one
Its fellows rush to tear it
To pieces
With small cries rather like the wailing of a newborn baby
*
...
*
Menus
I.
Truffled green turtle liver
Lobster Mexican
Florida pheasant
Iguana with Caribbean sauce
Gumbo and palmetto
II.
Red River salmon
Canadian bear ham
Roast beef from the meadows of Minnesota
Smoked eels
San Francisco tomatoes
Pale ale and California wine
III.
Winnipeg salmon
Scotish leg of lamb
Royal Canadian apples
Old French wines
IV.
Kankal oysters
Lobster salad celery hearts
French snails vannilaed in sugar
Kentucky chicken
Desserts coffee Canadian Club whisky
V.
Pickled shark fins
Stillborn dogs in honey
Rice wine with violets
Cream of silkworm cocoon
Salted earthworms and Kava liqueur
Seaweed jam
VI.
Canned beef from Chicago and German delicatessen
Crayfish
Pineapples guavas loquats coconut mangoes custar apple
Baked breadfruit
VII.
Trutle soup
Fried oysters
Truffled bear paws
Lobster Javanese
VIII.
River crab and pimento stew
Sucking pig ringed with fried bananas
Hedgehog ravensara
Fruit
I. Roof Garden
For weeks the elevators have hoisted hosted crates crates of loam
At last
By dint of money and patience
The shrubbery is blooming
The lawn is a delicate green
A spring gushes out between the rhododendrons and camellias
On top of the building the building of bricks and steel
Evenings
The waiters in white serious as diplomats lean over the chasm which is the town
And the gardens are bright with a million little coloured lights
I believe Madam murmured the young man in a voice vibrant with restrained passion
I believe we will be fine here
And with a large gesture he swept the large sea
The coming and going
The navigational light of the giant ships
The gigantic Statue of Liberty
And the enormous panorama of the town cut with perpendicular bands of darkness and hard light
The old scientist and the two multimillionaires are alone n the terrace
Magnificent garden
Masses of flowers
Starry sky
The three elderly gentlemen stand in silence listening to the laughter and happy voices rising from bright windows
And to the murmured song of the sea at the end of the record
II. On the Hudson
The electric boat glides silently among the numerous ships anchored in the immense estuary and flying the flags of every nation in the world
The great clippers loaded with wood from Canada were unfurling their gigantic sails
The iron steamers were shooting torrents of black smoke
Dockhands of all races and nationalities were bustling around in the din of foghorns and whistles from factories and trains
The elegant launch is made entirely of teak
In the centre rises a sort of cabin something like those on Venetian gondolas.
III. Amphitryon
After the dinner served in the winter gardens among clumps of lemon trees of jasmine of orchids
There is a dance on the park lawn beneath bright lights
But the gifts sent to Miss Isadora are the main attraction
Of special interest is a pigeon blood ruby whose size and brilliance are unequaled
None of these young ladies own one to which it might be compared
Elegantly dressed
Skillful detectives mixing among the guests watch over that gem and protect it
IV. Office
Radiators and fans running on liquid air
Twelve telephones and five radios
Wonderful electric files contain endless industrial and scientific dossiers on every kind of business
The only place the multimillionaire feels at home is in this office
The big plate-glass windows overlook the park and the city
In the evening the mercury vapor lights shed their soft bluish glimmer
This is the origin of the orders to buy and sell which sometimes cause the Stock Markets of the entire world to crash
V. Girl
Light dress in crêpe de chine
The girl
Elegance and wealth
Hair a tawny blond where matched pearls shine
Calm and regular features that reflect frankness and kindness
Her big almond green sea-blue eyes are bright and bold
She has this fresh and velvety complexion with a special pinkness that seems to be the prerogative of American girls
VI. Young Man
He's the Beau Brummell of Fifth Avenue
Tie of gold cloth sprinkled with little diamond flowers
Suit a pink and violet metallic material
Ankle-boots in real sharkskin with each button a little black pearl
He sports fine asbestos flannel pajamas a glass suit a crocodile-skin vest
His valet soaps his gold pieces
He never has anything but perfumed brand-new bills in his wallet
VII. Work
Some crooks have just blown up the railway bridge
The coaches caught fire at the bottom of the valley
The injured swim in the boiling water from the disemboweled locomotive
Living torches run among the debris and spewing steam
Other coaches stay hanging 60 yards up
Men with flashlights and acetylene torches follows the trail down the valley
And the rescue is organized quietly and quickly
Under the cover of rushes of reeds of willows the waterfowl make a nice rustling noise
Dawn is long in coming
But already a team of a hundred carpenters called by telegraph and come by special train is busy rebuilding the bridge
Bang bang-bang
Pass me the nails
VIII. Tresle Work
Should you come to a river or a deep valley
You go over it on a wooden bridge until the company receipt allow them to build one of stone or iron
The American carpenters are unrivaled in the art of building them
They begin by laying a bed of hard rock
Then a first support goes up
Which supports a second then a third then a forth
As many as are necessary to reach the height of the bank
On the last support two beams
On the two beams two rails
These daring constructions are reinforced by neither Saint Andrew;s crosses nor T girders
They are held only by a few smaller beams and a few spikes that maintain the gauge of the trestles
And that's it
It's a bridge
A beautiful bridge
IX. The Thousand Islands
Around here the countryside is one of the most beautiful in North America
The immense sheet of lake is a blue that's almost white
Hundred and hundred of little green islands float on the calm surface of the clear water
The delicious cottages built in bright-coloured brick give this landscape the appearance of an enchanted kingdom
Luxurious maple mahogany boats elegantly decked out with flags and covered with multicolour awning come and go from one island to another
Any suggestion of fatigue of labour of poverty is missing from this gracious setting for multimillionaires
The sun disappears on the horizon of Lake Ontario
The clouds bathe their folds in vats of purple violet scarlet and orange
What a beautiful evening murmur Andrea and Frederika seated on the terrace of a medieval castle
And the ten thousand motorboats reply to their ecstasy
X. Laboratory
Visiting the greenhouses
The thermo-syphon maintains a constant temperature
The soil is saturated with formic acid with manganese and other substances which give the vegetation tremendous strength
In one day the leaves grow the flowers bloom and the fruits ripen
Thanks to an ingenious device the roots are bathed in an electric current which guarantees this monstrous growth
Anti-hail guns explode nimbus and cumulus
We go back to town across the barren waste
The morning is radiant
The dark purple heather and golden broom still haven't shed their metals
The seagulls trace big circles in the light blue sky
*
Far West
I. Cucumingo
The San Bernadino hacienda
It was built in the middle of a lush valley fed by a multitude of small streams that run down from the surrounding mountains
The roofs are tile red in the shade of sycamores and laurels
Trout thrive in the streams
Immense flocks grace untended in the lush meadows
The orchards are thick with fruit pears apples grapes pineapples figs oranges
And in the truck gardens
Old World vegetables grow beside those of the tropics
Plenty of game here
The California quail
The rabbit known as the cottontail
The long-eared hare known as the jackass
The prarie hen the turtledove the partridge
The wild duck and wild goose
The antelope
It's true you still see wildcats and rattlesnakes
But there aren't any pumas anymore
II. Dorypha
On holidays
When the Natives and vaqueros get drunk on whiskey and pulque
Dorypha dances
To the sound of the Mexican guitar
Such exciting habaneras
That people come from miles around to admire her
No woman knows as well as she
How to drape the silk mantilla
And to fix her blond hair
With a ribbon
A comb
A flower
III. The Mockingbird
The heat is staggering
Balcony shaded with trumpet vines and purplish honeysuckle
In the big silence of dozing countryside
You can hear
The gurgling of little rills
The distant mooing of big herds of grazing cattle
The song of the nightingale
The crystal-clear hissing of big bullfrogs
The hooting of the owl
And the call of the mockingbird in the cactus
IV. Mushroom Town
Toward the end of the year 1911 a group of Yankee financiers decide to build a town way out west at the foot of the Rocky Mountains
Not even a month goes by and there are three Union railroads although still no houses
Workers pour in from everywhere
As early as the second month three churches are built and five theatres are going full blast
Around a square that still has a few nice trees a forest of metal girders rings day and night with pounding hammers
Winches
Machines huffing and puffing
The steel skeletons of houses thirty stories high start lining up
Brick walls or often plain aluminum sheets fill in the interstices of the framework
In a few hours reinforced concrete is poured using the Edison method
Because of a sort of superstition no one wants to christen the town and a contest is announced with a raffle and prizes given by the town's biggest newspaper which is also looking for a name
V. Club
Although it's on the official map of the town this street still consists only of plank fences and piles of rubbish
The only way to get across the street is by hopping in zigzags over the mud and puddles
At the end o this unfinished boulevard lit by powerful arc lights is the Black Bean Club which is also a matrimonial agency
Wearing cowboy hats or wool caps with earflaps
Faces hard as nails
Men get out of the 60-horsepower cars they're breaking in and put their names on the list look through the photograph album
Choose their fiancées who are cabled to embark at Cherbourg on the Kaiser Wilhelm and who sail full steam ahead
Mostly German girls
A stable-boy in black wearing swansdown shoes opens the door with a glacial propriety and gives the newcomer a suspicious once-over
I drink a whiskey cocktail then another then another
Then a mint julep a mother's milk a prairie oyster a nightcap
VI. Squaw's Wigwam
When you go through the rickety door made of boards ripped from packing crates and with pieces of leather for hinges
You find yourself in a low room
Smoky
Smell of rotting fish
Stench of exquisitely rancid fat
Barbaric panoply
War bonnets of eagle feathers necklaces of puma teeth or bear claws
Bows arrows tomahawks
Moccasins
Seed and glass bead bracelets
You also see
Some scalping knives one or two old-fashioned carbines a flintlock pistol elk and reindeer antlers a whole collection of little embroidered tobacco pouches
Then three very old soft stone peace pipes with reed stems
Eternally bent over the hearth
The hundred-year-old proprietress of this establishment is preserved like a ham smoked and dried and curd like her hundred-year-old pipe and the black of her mouth and the black hole of her eye
VII. City of Frisco
It's an old hulk eaten away by rust
Twenty times in dry dock and the engine makes only 7 or 8 knots
And to economize they burn old half-used cinders and cast-off coal
They hoist some makeshift sails every time there's a puff of wind
With his scarlet face his bushy eyebrows his pimply nose Captain Hopkins is a real sailor
Little silver rings pierce his ears
This ship is loaded exclusively with the caskets of Chinese who died in America but who wanted to be buried in their native land
Oblong boxes red or light blue or covered with golden inscriptions
Now that's a type of merchandise illegal to transport
VIII. Vancouver
In the thick fog that packs the boats and docks you can barely hear the bell ringing ten o'clock
The docks are deserted and the town is fast asleep
You walk along the low and sandy coast where a glacial wind is blowing and the long Pacific waves are breaking
That pale spot in the murky shadows is the station for the Canadian Northern the Grand Trunk
And those bluish halos in the wind are steamers bound for the Klondike Japan and the East Indies
It's so dark I can barely make out the street signs as I lug my suitcase around looking for a cheap hotel
Everyone has embarked
The oarsmen are bent over the oars and the heavy boat loaded to the gunwales pushes into the high waves
From time to time a little hunchback at the tiller changes their course
Steering his way through the mist guided by a foghorn
They bump against the dark mass of the ship and Siberian huskies rise on the starboard quarter
Washed out in the gray-white-yellow
As if they were loading fog
*
Aleutian Islands
I.
Steep cliffs facing the icy polar winds
Inland there are fertile meadows
Reindeer elk musk-ox
The arctic fox the beaver
Fish in streams
A low beach has been used as a seal fur farm
At the top of the cliff they harvest eider nests whose feathers are worth a fortune
II.
Huge sturdy buildings where a rather large number of traders live
All the way around a little garden containing very kind of vegetable capable of withstanding the climate
Mountain ash pine arctic willow
Border of heather and alpine plants
III.
Bay scattered with small rocky islands
The seal sunbathe in groups of five or six
Or stretch out on the sand
When they play they give a kind of guttural grunt like barking
Next to the Inuit hut there is a lean-to where the skins are prepared
*
River
Mississippi
Right here the river's almost as wide as a lake
The yellowish muddy water rolls between two marshy banks
Aquatic plants extending the acreage of the cotton fields
Here and there appear the towns and villages lurking back in some little bay with their factories with their tall black chimneys with their long piers on pilings running way out into the water
Overwhelming heat
The ship's bell rings for lunch
The passengers sport checked suits blinding ties sunset-red vests like flaming cocktails and Louisiana hot sauce
You see a lot of crocodiles
The young ones frisky and wriggling
The big ones their backs covered with greenish moss just drifting along
The luxuriant vegetation indicates the approach of the tropical zone
Gigantic bamboos palm trees tulip trees laurels cedars
The river itself is now twice as wide
Dotted with floating islands from which our boat scares up clouds of waterfowl
Steamboats sailboats barges boats of all kinds and enormous rafts
A yellow steam rises from the overheated river
Now there are hundred of crocs thrashing around us
You hear the dry snapping of their jaws and you see very clearly their wild little eyes
The passengers get a kick our of firing into them with hunting rifles
When a sharpshooter kills or mortally wounds one
Its fellows rush to tear it
To pieces
With small cries rather like the wailing of a newborn baby
*
...
*
Menus
I.
Truffled green turtle liver
Lobster Mexican
Florida pheasant
Iguana with Caribbean sauce
Gumbo and palmetto
II.
Red River salmon
Canadian bear ham
Roast beef from the meadows of Minnesota
Smoked eels
San Francisco tomatoes
Pale ale and California wine
III.
Winnipeg salmon
Scotish leg of lamb
Royal Canadian apples
Old French wines
IV.
Kankal oysters
Lobster salad celery hearts
French snails vannilaed in sugar
Kentucky chicken
Desserts coffee Canadian Club whisky
V.
Pickled shark fins
Stillborn dogs in honey
Rice wine with violets
Cream of silkworm cocoon
Salted earthworms and Kava liqueur
Seaweed jam
VI.
Canned beef from Chicago and German delicatessen
Crayfish
Pineapples guavas loquats coconut mangoes custar apple
Baked breadfruit
VII.
Trutle soup
Fried oysters
Truffled bear paws
Lobster Javanese
VIII.
River crab and pimento stew
Sucking pig ringed with fried bananas
Hedgehog ravensara
Fruit
June 9, 2022
The first poem is entitled "Cucumingo," and the first line mentions "L’hacienda de San-Bernardino." The original Paris edition was published under this title in 1924, in a slim stylish paperback, but the title was subsequently changed to "Far West" in response to a threatening letter from the camera company. Mr. Padgett's English translation is available in his "Complete Poems of Blaise Cendrars."
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