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Complete Poems
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.
426 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
8 people are currently reading
621 people want to read
About the author
Blaise Cendrars
274 books276 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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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 1, 2023
A water lily on the Seine, it's the flowering moon.
The Milky Way is swooning in the sky over Paris and embracing it
Wild and naked and lying back, its mouth is sucking Notre-Dame.
The Great Bear and the Little Bear are growling around Saint-Merry.
My amputated hand is shining in the constellation Orion.
In this cold, hard light, trembling and more than unreal,
Paris is like the cooled image of a plant
That reappears in its ashes. Sad simulacrum.
As straight as an arrow, the ageless houses and streets are just
Stone and iron heaped up in an unlikely desert.
August 1, 2007
This fabulous translation by Ron Padgett is probably the greatest translation from the French ever done in english. First of all, Cendrars is by far the most amazing poet of his generation, full of surprise and quick wit, but serious to the core. The Trans-Siberian poem is one of the most accomplished "travel" poems in any language, and "Kodak" rocks. All of these poems are excellent, and Ron Padgett has made this poet available to english readers in the best possible way. What a stunning book. ESSENTIAL.
April 1, 2015
Nemiri
Zaboravi nemire
Sve pohabane stanice nagnute kraj puta
Telegrafske žice s kojih vise
Izvitoperene stupove koji gestukuliraju i guše ih
Svijet se proteže izdužuje i sklapa poput harmonike u rukama manijaka sadista
U procjepima neba nestaju zahuktale lokomotive
A u rupama,
Vrtoglava rotacija kotača usta glasovi
I psi zle kobi koji nam laju za petama.
Demoni oslobođeni okova
Zveket željeza
Sve je u krivom akordu
Klik-klak kotača
Kvačenja trzaji
Pripajanja vagona
Mi smo oluja u lubanji gluhog čovjeka...
Zaboravi nemire
Sve pohabane stanice nagnute kraj puta
Telegrafske žice s kojih vise
Izvitoperene stupove koji gestukuliraju i guše ih
Svijet se proteže izdužuje i sklapa poput harmonike u rukama manijaka sadista
U procjepima neba nestaju zahuktale lokomotive
A u rupama,
Vrtoglava rotacija kotača usta glasovi
I psi zle kobi koji nam laju za petama.
Demoni oslobođeni okova
Zveket željeza
Sve je u krivom akordu
Klik-klak kotača
Kvačenja trzaji
Pripajanja vagona
Mi smo oluja u lubanji gluhog čovjeka...
September 4, 2017
I loved some of these poems. "Easter in New York" is five stars all the way. "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian" is also excellent, as is "To the Heart of the World." Unfortunately, the bulk of the book rarely captured my interest.
The background of "Kodak" is fascinating. The long poem was mostly scissor-and-pasted out of Gustave Le Rouge's pulp The Mysterious Doctor Cornelius.
Blaise Cendrars fought in the French Foreign Legion during WWI and lost his right arm at Champagne in September, 1915. Later, in 1919, Cendrars worked as assistant director on the classic anti-war film J'accuse. Cendrars also appeared in the silent movie as one of the dead soldiers rising up from the battlefield.
The background of "Kodak" is fascinating. The long poem was mostly scissor-and-pasted out of Gustave Le Rouge's pulp The Mysterious Doctor Cornelius.
Blaise Cendrars fought in the French Foreign Legion during WWI and lost his right arm at Champagne in September, 1915. Later, in 1919, Cendrars worked as assistant director on the classic anti-war film J'accuse. Cendrars also appeared in the silent movie as one of the dead soldiers rising up from the battlefield.
February 3, 2016
magical. childlike. provoking. charming.
August 11, 2025
Tout ce qui est voyage c’est super mon Blaise mais sur les femmes s’agirait de se calmer
September 15, 2007
Blaise Cendrars is so un-poetic that somehow he turns super poetic. Like reading headlines as poetry, Cendrars was an amazing poet who fully understood his (20th) Century. Beautiful work maaaaan.
May 1, 2010
What I liked I really liked but what I did not like was the majority.
March 5, 2013
Crazy Dude, Great poems.
January 15, 2023
This collection is a fantastic introduction to a fascinating poet. Blaise Cendrars is one of those writers who seems both out of time and ahead of his time. The poetry here is fresh and free-flowing, allowing none of the dusty references of the previous centuries. The form of his poetry has to be my favourite compromise - poems with a visible and tangible structure that nevertheless feel unrestricted. He is also a travelling poet; much of the poetry here concerns journey and adventures around the globe. This combination gives his work a sense of freedom. There are elements of his narratives that are somewhat dated, using stereotypes of other people that would, today, come across as clumsily unsensitive. The male gaze of his generation also comes out in poems such as "The Prose of the Trans-Siberian" and his caricatures of South American women. However, these serve to position the writing in time; Cendrars is one of the more interesting male voices of his generation. I felt I could hear echoes of some of the more romantic British First World War poets, despite most of this poetry representing times of peace.
The selection begins with longer poems set in New York and on the Trans-Siberian train before the brilliantly entertaining "My Seven Uncles" transports us to Panama. Cendrars short, list-like stanzas jump from image to image but always maintain a sense of the whole. "Nineteen Elastic Poems" is another eclectic section - the last, "19. Construction" the best example of Cendrars punctuated style. The poems here are more experimental and more striking. "The War in the Luxenbourg" goes even further, Cendars pushing the boundaries of form and shape, mixing up upper and lower case letters, using format to exaggerate and highlight his ability to play on words. In the next section, "Unnatural Sonnets", the bizarre but brilliant poem "OpOetic" is a riot of capital Os and must have been a challenge to translate at all! Two longer sections finish the collection. The first, "Kodak (Documentary)" takes us on a trip across America, while "Travel Notes" describes a steamer voyage from France to Brazil and back. Both are written in short snapshots, like a photo album, and both are wonderfully transformative. The sometimes tiny poems have a feel of spontaneity, sketches from a traveler's diary. They are the kind of little pieces of linguistic magic you wish you could conjure up while writing in a train or staring at a beautiful view. Some are mundane or frivolous, poems about writing poems, about arriving at a port, poems about watching people, poems about food and drink and sleep, poems about watching the world sail by.
There is so much variety to choose from in this collection and I came away feeling like I'd discovered a new favourite poet. The book has a detailed introduction and all the original poems in French. It demonstrates Cendrars ability to capture feelings, moments, the beauty and ordinariness of our world. He moves from lyrical to playful, from vulgar to sensuous, from bored to inspired. A gem of a book for those bored with crusty old poems and irritated by the emptiness of modern internet poetry. Cendrars is the real deal.
The selection begins with longer poems set in New York and on the Trans-Siberian train before the brilliantly entertaining "My Seven Uncles" transports us to Panama. Cendrars short, list-like stanzas jump from image to image but always maintain a sense of the whole. "Nineteen Elastic Poems" is another eclectic section - the last, "19. Construction" the best example of Cendrars punctuated style. The poems here are more experimental and more striking. "The War in the Luxenbourg" goes even further, Cendars pushing the boundaries of form and shape, mixing up upper and lower case letters, using format to exaggerate and highlight his ability to play on words. In the next section, "Unnatural Sonnets", the bizarre but brilliant poem "OpOetic" is a riot of capital Os and must have been a challenge to translate at all! Two longer sections finish the collection. The first, "Kodak (Documentary)" takes us on a trip across America, while "Travel Notes" describes a steamer voyage from France to Brazil and back. Both are written in short snapshots, like a photo album, and both are wonderfully transformative. The sometimes tiny poems have a feel of spontaneity, sketches from a traveler's diary. They are the kind of little pieces of linguistic magic you wish you could conjure up while writing in a train or staring at a beautiful view. Some are mundane or frivolous, poems about writing poems, about arriving at a port, poems about watching people, poems about food and drink and sleep, poems about watching the world sail by.
There is so much variety to choose from in this collection and I came away feeling like I'd discovered a new favourite poet. The book has a detailed introduction and all the original poems in French. It demonstrates Cendrars ability to capture feelings, moments, the beauty and ordinariness of our world. He moves from lyrical to playful, from vulgar to sensuous, from bored to inspired. A gem of a book for those bored with crusty old poems and irritated by the emptiness of modern internet poetry. Cendrars is the real deal.
December 25, 2024
The greatest poem here is “Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jehanne of France,” about a train journey from Moscow to Paris in 1905 during the first Russian Revolution, but it could just as easily foreshadow the upcoming world war. The poet’s journey is really into the chaos and fractured existence of the burgeoning 20th century – a dirge of remembrance that is also a prophecy. The poet regains his home in Paris at the moment in history when the concept of a homeland becomes impossibly complicated. When I reached the end, I had the urge to turn back to the beginning and start again. The original poem was published in a gorgeous accordion-folded watercolor print that opened to six-and-a-half feet with artwork by Sonia Delaunay. And for a mere $2,000 you can own a full-sized reproduction from Yale University Press (in used condition), if you can track it down. The rest of us will have to be content with the English translation here, sans the six-foot scroll of artwork.
The rest of the collection, unfortunately, falls flat, with the exception of a few of his war poems, “Easter in New York,” and an ode to Apollinaire. In fact, more than half of the collection consists of travelogue poems that read as unremarkable enjambed prose and diary entries. After finishing the book, I read the intro to discover that a large number of these were “found poems,” which explains everything. Cendrars is a fine writer, but not a great poet. One could do well just to read the selected highlights mentioned above.
The rest of the collection, unfortunately, falls flat, with the exception of a few of his war poems, “Easter in New York,” and an ode to Apollinaire. In fact, more than half of the collection consists of travelogue poems that read as unremarkable enjambed prose and diary entries. After finishing the book, I read the intro to discover that a large number of these were “found poems,” which explains everything. Cendrars is a fine writer, but not a great poet. One could do well just to read the selected highlights mentioned above.
August 22, 2018
Some of these poems are some of the most modern Modern poems I've ever read.
February 25, 2020
Un beau voyage au Brésil et une belle promenade dans Paris
June 9, 2024
This is a very hefty volume, but it's a bilingual text with the French originals following the English translations, so it's not quite as big in content as it first appears to be. Cendrars' poetic life was rather brief. His earliest surviving poetry dates from 1912 and in 1924 he gave up writing poetry and turned wholly to prose. In those twelve years he produced an impressive set of poems. I enjoyed 'The Prose of the Trans-Siberian and of Little Jeanne of France' and 'Panama, or the Adventures of my Seven Uncles' most, both of them long sequences with unstoppable momentum and striking imagery.
Cendrars is one of the least lyrical of poets, rarely using metaphors or any kind of traditional poetic device. He invented the 'found poem' and his crisp and almost emotionless documentary style produces an affect akin to streams of rhythmic telegram messages sent to the reader. It is a technique that works well for the material he chooses to write about. Here are voyages, both real and imaginary, distorted prayers, poems about places and people, experimental poems, all done in a particular tone, the voice of the perpetual wanderer and bohemian adventurer, Cendrars.
Cendrars is one of the least lyrical of poets, rarely using metaphors or any kind of traditional poetic device. He invented the 'found poem' and his crisp and almost emotionless documentary style produces an affect akin to streams of rhythmic telegram messages sent to the reader. It is a technique that works well for the material he chooses to write about. Here are voyages, both real and imaginary, distorted prayers, poems about places and people, experimental poems, all done in a particular tone, the voice of the perpetual wanderer and bohemian adventurer, Cendrars.
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July 29, 2011Blaise Cendrars raconte sa traversée de l'Atlantique vers le Brésil à bord du paquebot Formose. Un cycle poétique en vers libres qui sont comme ces courtes scènes que l'on aperçoit aujourd'hui dans les reportages télévisés sur les voyages en pays lointains. Une poésie dépouillée qu'on croit spontanée et qui ressemble à des haikus mais candides et irréguliers. Cendrars ne s'intéresse qu'au voyage même, les 9 mois passés à Sao Paulo en compagnie des amis qu'il allait rejoindre il ne les mentionne que pour leur dire au revoir de la main et se remettre de plus bel à décrire ce parcours maritime durant lequel il écrit, comme il nous le révèle, "parce que"...
September 7, 2010
Very good...he is one of the founders of 20th century French poetry and a crazy shit to boot....great work...loved it.
October 5, 2015
the more I read and reread these poems the more I enjoy them....I'm upping my rating to 5 stars....I think Ron Padgett has done a wonderful job of translation
August 19, 2011
Still the most effective poet of the twentieth century...even in translation...no small feat!
August 26, 2012
La edición bilingüe francés-español.
July 12, 2023
bien lecture sur la plage cheveux salés voyage sédentaire livre sablé ect.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews