I'm Lying: Selected Translations

by Philippe Soupault, Paulette Schmidt (Translator)

poetry, tr Paulette Schmidt, bilingual edition

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Philippe Soupault was a French writer and poet, novelist, critic, and political activist. He took an active role in the Dadaist movement and later founded the Surrealist movement with André Breton. Soupault founded the periodical Littérature together with the writers Breton and Louis Aragon in Paris 1919, which, for many, dates the beginnings of Surrealism. The first book of automatic writing, Les champs magnétiques (1920), was co-authored by Soupault and Breton. After imprisonment by the Nazis in World War II, Soupault traveled to the United States but subsequently returned to France. His works include such fat volumes of poetry as Aquarium (1917) and Rose des vents [compass card] (1920) and the novel Les Dernières Nuits de Paris (1928; tr. Last Nights of Paris, 1929).

Reviews

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Philippe Soupault was one of the original surrealists, and co-authored one of the founding texts of automatism with Andre Breton, though his poetry (at least in this collection, which is a career-wide selection) hardly hints at his undisputed surrealist credentials. Not to say he did not remain a good surrealist in mind and sympathy.

Nothing too wild here. Nothing too deep and too disjunctive. No twisted and metamorphic imagery. But there is a gentleman’s dose of wisdom which combines resignation to the rottenness of the world with a fresh eagerness to see what might come next; the work of a light-hearted sage who knows what heavy-hearted means.

The following poem doesn't necessarily illustrate what I'm saying, but I particularly liked it.

Sporting Goods


Fearless as a postage stamp
he went his way
tapping gently on his palms
to count his steps
his heart red as a wild boar
rapping rapping
like a pink and green butterfly
From time to time
he raised a small satin flag
After he had walked a long way
he sat down to rest
and fell asleep
Since that day there are a lot of clouds in the sky
a lot of birds in the trees
a lot of salt in the sea
And furthermore a lot of other things

[Matt Morris]

Read my review of this & other books at https://miscmss.blogspot.com/2021/07/...