ROBERT DESNOS

A journey with SURREALISM

 LEST WE FORGET

The last known photograph of French Surrealist poet Robert Desnos (centre, leaning to his left), taken in the Terezin concentration camp, where he had been sent by the Nazis after having been captured and deported for being an active member of the French anti-fascist resistance.  He had previously been imprisoned in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Flossenburg concentration camps.  He died from typhoid in Terezín roughly one month after it’s liberation by the Red Army in 1945

Listen to us in your turn, sailors, pilots, soldiers.
We wish you good morning.
We do not speak to you of our suffering but of our hope,
On the threshold of a new day we say good morning,
To you who are near also to you
Who will receive our morning prayer
At the moment when twilight, in straw boots, enters your houses.

And good morning just the same and good morning for tomorrow
And good morning of good heart and all our kin
Good morning, good morning, the sun will rise over Paris
Even if hidden by clouds it will still be there
Good morning, good morning, with all of my heart bonjour.  

  

– Robert Desnos, from “The Night  Watchman of the Pont-au-Change,” 1942    

(translated by Carolyn Forché)

Desnos - by Man Ray (1922)*

Robert Desnos, (born July 4, 1900, Paris—died June 8, 1945, Terezín, Czech.), French poet who joined the early Surrealist movement, soon becoming one of its most valuable members because of his ability to fall into a hypnotic trance*, under which he could recite his dreams, write, and draw.

Robert Desnos - archives