L'amoureuse

"L'amoureuse" was written by the French poet Paul Eluard.  Born in 1895 at Saint Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, Eluard is probably best known for his surrealist aphorism "Elephants are contagious."  He published his first book of poetry at eighteen, when confined to a Swiss sanatorium for tuberculosis. There he met Gala, a Russian woman he would marry in the midst of the war, four years later.  Capital of Pain, comprising many of the poems written between 1921 and 1926, is widely considered Eluard's finest surrealist achievement. The collection was acclaimed as the unified exponent of Surrealism's creative intentions.  Eluard died in 1952.

L'amoureuse

Elle est debout sur mes paupières
Et ses cheveux sont dans les miens,
Elle a la forme de mes mains,
Elle a la couleur de mes yeux,
Elle s'engloutit dans mon ombre
Comme une pierre sur le ciel.

Elle a toujours les yeux ouverts
Et ne me laisse pas dormir.
Ses rêves en pleine lumière
Font s'évaporer les soleils,
Me font rire, pleurer et rire,
Parler sans avoir rien à dire.

Lady love

She is standing on my eyelids
And her hair is in my hair
She has the color of my eye
She has the body of my hand
In my shade she is engulfed
As a stone against the sky

She will never close her eyes
And she does not let me sleep
And her dreams in the bright day
Make the suns evaporate
And me laugh cry and laugh
Speak when I have nothing to say