Poem of the day. Lui Aragon - "Elsa's Eyes"
Elsa's Eyes
Your eyes are so deep that leaning down to drink
I saw all suns mirrored in them
All desperate souls hurled deathward from their brink
Your eyes are so deep my memory is lost there
In the shadow of birds the ocean roars
Then suddenly the day clears and your eyes change
Summer carves the clouds on the angels’ pinafore
The sky’s never as blue as it is above grain
In vain the winds pursue the azure’s griefs
Your eyes are brighter, even through a veil of tears,
And your eyes make the heavens jealous after a shower:
Glass is never so blue as it is when it breaks
(…)
The child who holds pictures before him for hours
Will strain his eyes less immoderately
When you stare from yours, I do not know if you lie:
One would think the rain were opening wild flowers
Do they hide lightning in that lavender
Where insects give in to their lusts?
I am caught in a net of falling stars
Like a sailor who dies at sea in the middle of August
(…)
One beautiful evening the universe broke
On the reefs where signal fires were lighted
But I saw glittering high above the ocean
Your eyes Elsa your eyes the eyes of Elsa
Louis Aragon, a French writer and public figure, named Louis Marie Andrill, was born on 03.10. 1897 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Margarita Tuka's ex-son. His second father is political actor Andriot. He takes his nickname on the name of the Spanish historical area. From 1915 he studied at the Medical Faculty in Paris. He wrote his first poems in 1917. He participated in the First World War as a sanitarium. He debuts with the dadaist collection "Fireworks" (1920). At first he emerged as a Dadaist and surrealist, later turned to realism. Author of many poems, novels, journalism, essays, historical works and others. incl. "History of the USSR". Member of the Gonkur Academy. A member of the Central Committee. In 1932 he visited the USSR. Married since 1939 for Elsa Triole (Elisa Kagan), writer, wealthy Russian Jew, sister of Lily Brik, close to Vladimir Mayakovsky. Participates in the Resistance. Winner of the International Award for Lenin "For Peace between Peoples" (1957). Member of the World Peace Council. Doctor of Sciences at the Moscow and Prague Universities. Promotes Soviet literature in France. Supports dissidents in the USSR. He died on 24.12.1982 in Paris.
"Les yeux d'Elsa" is a prefect foil to yesterday's "Union libre". Louis Aragon was a buddy of André Breton's, but as far as I know, his foray into surrealism was short-lived.
If you compare the two poems, Aragon's "Les yeux d'Elsa" is much more traditional than Breton's "Union libre".
Gone are the whimsical and nonsensical similes, enter the elegant lyricism of rhyme and word.
In Aragon's poem, depth of passion wells up unimpeded by the gratuitous discombobulation of images that we found in Union libre, and despite a higher degree of expressive and stylistic sophistication than Breton's poem, I find that it has a more immediate appeal to the heart.
Thank you again for your analytical comment. It is really a pleasure to read your thoughts :)