“Five Haiku”

Translation Tuesday is upon us again, & this time around I’m posting a translation I made of a poem by Paul Éluard, an extremely gifted & important poet who played a large role both in the development of the Surrealist movement & later in the French Resistance—which included writing his famous poem “Liberté.” I didn’t translate much of Éluard’s work—I found him difficult to translate, actually. However, I happened upon his poem “Cinq Hai-Kais” in some anthology—I forget which—& was intrigued by the thought of French Surrealist haiku. Since there seems to be quite a bit of interest these days in Haiku—for instance Kat Mortensen’s Kigo of the Kat & Dave King’s current series on his Pics & Poems blog—I thought some of you might find it interesting as well. Here’s my version—since it’s a relatively short post, I’ve added the original French below.

Hope you enjoy the poem, & be sure to tune in next Tuesday for another of B.N.’s poems!

Five Haiku


The wind
Hesitant
Rolls a cigarette out of air.

The mute girl speaks
This is art’s imperfection
This dark language.

The automobile’s really launched
Four martyr’s heads
Roll under the wheels.

Ah! a thousand flames, a fire, the light,
A shadow!
The sun’s following me.

A feather lends a hat
An air of lightness
The chimney’s smoking.

Paul Éluard
translation by John Hayes, © 1990-2010


Cinq Hai-Kais


Le vent
Hésitant
Roule une cigarette d’air.

La muette parle
C’est l’imperfection d’art
Ce langage obscur.

L’automobile est vraiment lancée
Quatre têtes de martyrs
Roulent sous les roues.

Ah! mille flammes, un feu, la lumière,
Une ombre!
Le soleil me suit.

Une plume donne au chapeau
Un air de légèreté
La cheminée fume.

Paul Éluard