"Nos enfants seront sauvés": Paul Éluard's poem "Ramage" and the fight against fascism
"Ramage". Autograph poem.
8vo. French manuscript in blue ink on green paper. 1 p.
€ 3,500.00
Important manuscript for the poem "Ramage" ("Bird song") that was originally published in the famous 1944 anthology "L'Honneur des poètes II: Europe" as a purported French translation of an anonymous Dutch poem, but has since been identified as a poem by Éluard (see Scheler, p. 323, note 1). The short poem that consists of three stanzas of varying length and free metre sets an optimistic tone in the face of danger and destruction, asserting that "Our children will be saved" and cursing anyone "who does not know | That the world is not hell!" (transl.). The poem in full: "Entre tous, toi, | Mon beau pays, | Tu es celui qui mûrit | Et qui prospère, | Entre le ciel et la mer, | Comme un fruit entre le ciel, | Et l'appétit des enfants. | Nos enfants seront sauvés, | avec eux la vie grandit, | Je vois loin et je découvre | Les limites de la terre. | Terre moirée, irisée, | Gaie comme un coq | Et tendre comme un fruit ! | Malheur à qui y mordra ! | Malheur à qui ne sait pas | Que la terre n'est pas l'Enfer !" - The intention behind Paul Éluard's and Jean Lescure's publication of "L'Honneur des poètes II: Europe" in May 1944 was both to oppose the fascist occupation of Europe and "the rise of nationalism in the ranks of the resistance poets themselves" (Lombez, p. 2). Éluard operated undercover in the Lozère region while preparing the anthology. As finding and contacting foreign poets who would contribute new works proved too difficult under these circumstances, Éluard inserted several pseudotranslations such as "Ramage". At the time, the anthology did not have the same impact as the first collection of oppositional poems published under the same title in July 1943. This was probably due to the rapidly changing circumstances following the Allied landing in Normandy on 6 June 1944.
The manuscript at hand is the final version with several corrections. Written in parentheses below the poem: "Traduit du néerlandais".
With collector's notes in pencil. Well preserved.
Paul Éluard, L'Honneur des poètes II Europe, Paris, Éditions de Minuit, 1944, p. 34. Lucien Scheler, La grande Espérance des poètes 1940-1945, [Paris], Éditions de Temps Actuels, 1982. Christine Lombez, Political (Mis)Use of Translation: Poetry Pseudotranslations in Occupied France (1940-44), in: CRCL, December 2017, pp. 1-11.
