Jean COCTEAU - Poem in homage to Charles Ferdinand RAMUZ.

Jean Cocteau (1889.1963)

Unpublished autograph poem.

A page in-4° with frayed edges.

Residual trace of stamp.

Slnd.

Amazing poem in first draft – with erasures and corrections – in homage to his friend, the Swiss writer Charles Ferdinand Ramuz.

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Of the devil and the devils

Ramuz knows the car

Blood red is his paint

Of its red zebras the rays

Of the devil and the devils

The sedan carries five wheels

The white road it wheels

It looks like a stick

The mustaches, the eyelids,

Careful choice of words

Hide the secret of the stones

And animal spirits

The fühn (spring wind)

Blow and sow delirium

But, calm, Ramuz waits

Let the trees know how to read.

Cocteau places his friend Ramuz here in perfect harmony with the surrounding Swiss mountains. Indeed, before being called the Tour Saint Martin, one of the summits of Diablerets (station in the canton of Vaud) was known under the name Quille du Diable. The many legends about this Alpine devil inspired Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (1878-1947) for his novel Derborence.