LA CRAVATE ET LA MONTRE
À Édouard Férot
LA TE
C VA
RA
DOU
LOU
REUSE
QUE TU
PORTES
ET QUI T '
ORNE O CI
VILISÉ
OTE- TU VEUX
LA BIEN
SI RESPI
RER
MME L
CO 'ON
S'A SE
MU
BI
EN
les la
heures
et le beau
vers Mon
dantesque coeur té
luisant et
cadavérique de
la
le bel les
inconnu Il yeux vie
est Et
- tout pas
5 se
les Muses en ra se
aux portes de fin fi
ton corps ni l'enfant la
dou
l'infini leur
redressé Agia
par un fou de
de philosophe
mou
rir
semaine la main
Tireis
Translation
The tie and the watch.
The painful tie you are wearing oh civilised one,
take it off if you wish to breathe well
What fun we are having
Hours
my heart
eyes
the child
Agia
the hand
Tireis
week
the infinite propped by a mad philosopher
the Muses at the doors of your body
the stately stranger
and the shiny and cadaverous worm
Background
The poem is a calligramme. It inserts itself in the surrealist movement, as well it should be. For after all it is the author, Guillaume Apollinaire, who invented the french adjective "surréaliste".
Considering it was written in 1918, the form alone of the poem is audacious. The style is very free; there are no rhymes. It is no coincidence that Tristan Tzara, two years earlier, had founded the dada movement, inspired strongly by anarchy and random thought. We are witnessing the first breaths of surrealist poetry, and those of the surrealist movement itself.
How the clock works:
The poem definitely does not read from left to right, but there is a logical procedure to it.
First of all, read the uppercase letter of the tie, and going down, follow the words to the bottom left, then go back to "tu veux bien." The clock is read in four parts, whatever the order. The themes are closely related, however. The rewinding dial in uppercase is one, the hands another, the twelve (yes, as the numbers on a clock) phrases immediately around the hands, and the arc around the right half of the clock.
What does it all mean?
The poem challenges the dogmas of the early 20th century society. Clothing was, somewhat like today, a hierchical symbol. Tight fitting clothing then was preffered (or rather required) among the higher class or the "civilised" as Apollinaire refers to them sarcastically. Corsets for women, ties for men. "Take it off," he writes in the tie section "if you wish to breathe."
The clock is a
delicious treat. The rewinding dial dial is one of two
cyclical symbols, and spells "Comme l'on s'amuse bien," or what fun we are having. Going around and around the
proletarian cycle (we are not far from the
realist movement), ever
starting over.
The twelve
phrases are very significant.
Twelve for "les heures,"
one for "Mon coeur,"
seven for "semaine." etc... The more obvious ones are hints to how the poem works. There is an neat visual play on the number
eight, where we read the word "infinite" (if you turn the number "8" 90 degrees... there you go!) For the other phrases, their relation to the numbers are a little more obscure. "le bel inconnu" at 10 o'clock could, indeed, be anyone. But his presence at this hour suggests he is a secret lover. Agia is possibly a woman Apollinaire knew, while Tireis is really
At Tireis, a city in
Sudan.
The hands are the other cyclical symbol, inevitably coming back to the hour. However this
cycle represents not a
day but a
lifetime, starting in the early stages with a heart, eyes, a child, Tireis (possibly referring to travels), to end with "le vers dantesque luisant et cadavérique," which represents
death. They
travel around the clock, and we presently witness them at 11:55. "Il est -5 enfin, Et tout sera fini," five minutes to the hour at last, and all shall be over. Does the author
submit gladly to death?
Perhaps, but in the final part (if we may call it such), does he also look
brightly upon life. "La beauté de vivre passe la douleur de mourir," the
beauty of life is beyond the
pain in dying.