Breakfast -- Jacques Prevert

Guest poem sent in by Firdaus Janoos

(Poem #1932) Breakfast He poured the coffee Into the cup He poured the milk Into the cup of coffee He added the sugar To the coffee and milk He stirred it With a teaspoon He drank the coffee And put back the cup Without speaking to me He lit a cigarette He blew some rings With the smoke He flicked the ashes Into the ashtray Without speaking to me Without looking at me He got up He put his hat On his head He put on His raincoat Because it was raining He went out Into the rain Without a word Without looking at me And I I took my head In my hands And I wept -- Jacques Prevert

   (translated by Alastair Campbell)

Jacques Prévert is one of France's most well-known poets, and I was
surprised to see him so well represented on minstrels ;)

The thing I love about him is his remarkable obervation of and sympathy for
people and everyday life. He evokes deep emotions with suprising simplicity
and grace. The poem "Breakfast" published in Paroles, Prévert's first
collection of poetry which appeared late in 1945, is typical of his lucid
and poignant style.

Firdaus

[Martin adds]

As an aside, I'd like to thank reader Ian Barnett (of the Parole
Translations and Literary Agency) for drumming into me the importance of
finding out about and acknowledging the translators of non-English poems we
run. I don't always succeed, I'll admit, but I do always make the effort.
Quoting Ian's spot-on rant about this all-too-common omission:

  This lacuna annexes foreign poets to the English language in a most
  unwholesome, if reflexive, nay, automatic way. It does the invisible
  profession of the literary translator no favours either. And strictly
  it is illegal not to acknowledge provenance -- a law which, for the
  authorship of the translator, is also strangely invisible.

martin

[Links]

Wikipedia entry:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9vert

A collection of Prévert's poems, translated by Campbell:
  http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/vol3no1/campbell.html