“No longer sharing” by Paul Eluard, or the death of the state of love: episode 3/20 of the podcast L’instant poetry by Keren Ann

Dear Ann is interested in the introspective writing of Paul Eluardoriginal with its evocative images. He illustrates the feeling of rupture that he felt in this poem entitled “No longer sharing” taken from Capital of pain; love poetry (Gallimard, coll. “Poetry”, 2023).
Read by Blade Alimbaye.

Heartbreaking physical fitness

Paul Eluard (1895-1952) was a French poet and one of the major figures of surrealism. He was one of the founders of this movement and collaborated with other great figures such as André Breton. His writing combines dreams, imagination and reality, seeking to liberate the unconscious. Dear Ann highlights in this poem the graphic aspect of the feeling of heartbreak. Eluard uses original metaphors to depict his state of mind in the face of separation: his loss of identity, his regret, the absence of the other which weighs on him, and this lucidity that he discovers among these feelings regarding sacrifices that we make of ourselves for love.

Enter this vision that is both enlightened and surreal of love's heartbreak, you will know if you share this sentimental experience with him.

Paul Éluard, “Don’t share anymore”

In the evening of madness, naked and clear,
The space between things has the shape of my words
The shape of a stranger's words,
Of a wanderer who unties the belt from his throat
And who lassoes the echoes.

Between trees and fences,
Between walls and jaws,
Between this great trembling bird
And the hill that overwhelms it,
Space has the shape of my gaze.

My eyes are useless,
The reign of dust is over,
The hair of the road has put on its rigid coat,
She doesn't run away anymore, I don't move anymore,
All bridges are cut, the sky will no longer pass through
I can no longer see.
The world is detaching itself from my universe
And, at the height of the battles,
When the season of blood fades in my brain,
I distinguish the day from this clarity of man
Who is mine,
I distinguish the vertigo of freedom,
Death from drunkenness,
The sleep of the dream,

O reflections on myself! oh my bloody reflections!

taken from Capital of pain; love poetry (Gallimard, coll. “Poetry”, 2023)