A moving logbook of Paul Éluard sailing towards Greece.

Paul Éluard (1895.1952)

Autograph manuscript.

One page in-12°

No place or date. [At sea, May 1946]

"The lights of Piraeus circle before me. Tomorrow I'm getting up early. FINALLY!"

A moving fragment from Paul Éluard's logbook as he sailed towards Greece.

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May 16th. 3 a.m. I return to the extraordinary office of the broker with the elderly men living at a snail's pace. They forgot to have me sign an agreement by which I must strictly adhere to the austere, disciplined life on the ship.

4 a.m. I'm boarding. The ship (Liberty Ship) will leave at 6 a.m. At 5 a.m., tea and lunch. One of the officers: Mathurin.  I had grown accustomed to Italy and I feel very uneasy leaving it. I was shown so much love there and everything was made so easy. I am the only passenger. There are about a dozen officer cadets, aged 18 to 20.

May 17. 7 a.m. Stromboli, smoking black and white. At its base, two villages between water and fire. The captain has been traveling for almost 40 years. At noon, we will arrive at the Strait of Messina. The sea is very calm, the sky cloudy. Noon . Messina. White butterflies. We take on board small birds. Mount Etna. The cat.

8 p.m. Silver evening. Swallows-Sharks.

May 18th. We will arrive tomorrow around noon. Very nice weather. A tiny bird comes to my lap.

5 p.m. Kalamata Bay is in sight. Snow on a mountaintop. In the evening, the captain endlessly tries out his revolver on the bridge. The sky is yellow. The sea is black.

May 19. 6 a.m.: barren islands, high snow-capped mountains. Extraordinary seconds. Very low clouds. Bright sunshine.

10 a.m. I slept for an hour. When I woke up, I realized we had turned. The islands are now to port. We'll sail around the peninsula and certainly won't arrive today.

11 a.m. We're still filming. English explanations. I don't know where we are or where we're going. Oh well, we'll see.

12pm. I was shown the map. It's simply Crete that we're leaving behind.

5 p.m. Sunshine, but the sea is frozen solid, like ice, and thick with mist. Small islands dot the landscape. We're walking very slowly. The captain confesses that he was in the Resistance. He hates Germans and despises southern Italians.

22:45. I get up to look out the porthole. In a circle before me, the lights of Piraeus. Tomorrow I'll get up early. FINALLY!

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Immediately after the war, Éluard spoke out as an ambassador for French culture and political causes. Undertaking a series of trips to Czechoslovakia, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece (during the civil war), Éluard tirelessly engaged in activism, giving lectures and readings. It was in this context that Paul Éluard visited Athens and Thessaloniki in May 1946, notably participating in a ceremony at the French Institute in Athens on May 27, 1946.

Éluard's relationship with Greece and the partisan movement had already been highlighted, among other things, with the poem "Athèna", written on December 9, 1944, following the outbreak of the bloody events in Athens.