{"id":479,"date":"2009-11-16T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2009-11-16T10:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=479"},"modified":"2009-11-16T10:43:02","modified_gmt":"2009-11-16T10:43:02","slug":"poetry-review-by-mahnaz-badihian-poem-by-paul-eluard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/poetry-review-by-mahnaz-badihian-poem-by-paul-eluard\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Review by Mahnaz Badihian \/ poem by Paul Eluard"},"content":{"rendered":"
paul Eluard<\/div>\n

\nPoem: Je t\u2019aime from the collection Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard translated by Marilyn Kallet
\nEluard\u2019s poetry is measured, planned, almost like a mathematical calculation that has the correction sum<\/b>
\n ….
\nPoem: Je t\u2019aime from the collection Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard translated by Marilyn Kallet<\/p>\n

I Love You (Je t\u2019aime)<\/p>\n

I love you for all the women I have not known
\nI love you for all the time I have not lived
\nFor the odor of the open sea and the odor of warm bread
\nFor the snow which melts for the first flowers
\nFor the pure animals man doesn\u2019t frighten
\nI love you to love
\nI love you for all the women I do not lovea<\/p>\n

Who reflects me if not you I see myself so little
\nWithout you I see nothing but an extended desert
\nBetween long ago and today
\nThere are all those deaths that I crossed on the straw
\nI have not been able to pierce the wall of my mirror
\nI have had to learn life word by word
\nAs one forgets<\/p>\n

I love you for your wisdom which is not mine
\nFor health
\nI love you against everything that is but illusion
\nFor the immortal heart that I do not possess
\nYou believe you are doubt you are only reason
\nYou are the great sun which makes me drunk
\nWhen I am sure of me. <\/p>\n

Paul \u00c9luard (1895-1952) <\/p>\n

\u201cThroughout his life, \u00c9luard perceived poetry as an action capable of arousing awareness in his readers, and recognized it as a powerful force in the struggle of political, social, and sexual liberation. He was briefly involved with the Dada Movement, but soon\u2014with Louis Aragon and Andr\u00e9 Breton\u2014helped to found Surrealism. \u201c- www.greeninteger.com
\nFrom 1938-1952 we see more traditional and post-surrealist work from him. In his last book \u201clast love poems\u201d we see a more mature Eluard with technical mastery in the art of poetry. This book is filled with intense and passionate love poems. The first time I read the poem \u201cI love you\u201d it was a Persian translation by Ahmad Shamloo and it affected me so much that in one day I read it 20 times . If we accept Remco Camperts definition that poetry is an act of affirmation, this poem is all about affirmation starting with name of the poem \u201cI love you\u201d which continues throughout the poem. His usage of metaphor is elegant. For example he uses \u201call the women\u201d to tell us the weight of his love. And he uses \u201call the time\u201d that he has not lived to demonstrate the length of time he loves her which is eternal. He then changes the use of his metaphors by moving from describing size and amount of his love to describing other aspects of his love. For example the aroma and freshness of his love by using \u201codor of the open sea\u201d, \u201cwarm bread\u201d, \u201csnow which melts\u201d, \u201cfirst flowers\u201d.
\nThe last line in the first stanza he uses a Shakespearean method by the use of a negative to convey something positive, \u201cI love you for all the women I don’t love.\u201d This statement is amazing, confusing and mathematical because it is almost all the women that he is not in love with or never has been before.
\nThe second section of the poem is the poet\u2019s confession that he is not good enough without her love. He explains this confession by using some images such as,
\n\u201cWho reflects me if not you I see myself so little
\nWithout you I see nothing but an extended desert.\u201d
\nIn the last stanza he ends the poem by defining why he loves this lover in particular.
\n\u201cI love you for your wisdom which is not mine
\nFor health
\nI love you against everything that is but illusion
\nFor the immortal heart that I do not possess\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons that he gives makes even the reader fall in love with his lover. A woman of wisdom with an immortal heart and a woman are as warm as the sun.
\n\u201cYou are the great sun which makes me drunk\u201d
\nEluard\u2019s poetry is measured, planned, almost like a mathematical calculation that has the correction sum. Each stanza in this poem fits perfectly into the flow of the poetry. In the first stanza he professes his love, in the second stanza he speaks of himself without her love, and in the last stanza he explains why he loves her in particular.
\n<\/b>
\nby: Mahnaz Badihian
\nAmerican\/Iranian poet,writer,translator
\nbadihian@gmail.com<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poem: Je t\u2019aime from the collection Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard translated by Marilyn Kallet Eluard\u2019s poetry is measured, planned, almost like a mathematical calculation that has the correction sum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":546,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}