I Love You (Je t’aime), by; Paul Eluard

Poem: Je t’aime from the collection Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard translated by Marilyn Kallet
Review by; Mahnaz Badihian
I Love You (Je t’aime)

I love you for all the women I have not known
I love you for all the time I have not lived
For the odor of the open sea and the odor of warm bread
For the snow which melts for the first flowers
For the pure animals man doesn’t frighten
I love you to love
I love you for all the women I do not love

Who reflects me if not you I see myself so little
Without you I see nothing but an extended desert
Between long ago and today
There are all those deaths that I crossed on the straw
I have not been able to pierce the wall of my mirror
I have had to learn life word by word
As one forgets

I love you for your wisdom which is not mine
For health
I love you against everything that is but illusion
For the immortal heart that I do not possess
You believe you are doubt you are only reason
You are the great sun which makes me drunk
When I am sure of me.

Paul Éluard (1895-1952)

“Throughout his life, Éluard 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—with Louis Aragon and André Breton—helped to found Surrealism. “- www.greeninteger.com
From 1938-1952 we see more traditional and post-surrealist work from him. In his last book “last love poems” 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 “I love you” 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 “I love you” which continues throughout the poem. His usage of metaphor is elegant. For example he uses “all the women” to tell us the weight of his love. And he uses “all the time” 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 “odor of the open sea”, “warm bread”, “snow which melts”, “first flowers”.
The last line in the first stanza he uses a Shakespearean method by the use of a negative to convey something positive, “I love you for all the women I don’t love.” 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.
The second section of the poem is the poet’s confession that he is not good enough without her love. He explains this confession by using some images such as,
“Who reflects me if not you I see myself so little
Without you I see nothing but an extended desert.”
In the last stanza he ends the poem by defining why he loves this lover in particular.
“I love you for your wisdom which is not mine
For health
I love you against everything that is but illusion
For the immortal heart that I do not possess”

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.
“You are the great sun which makes me drunk”
Eluard’s 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.