Jean COCTEAU – Autograph poem in alexandrines – “Earth!”

Jean Cocteau (1889.1963)

Autograph poem – Earth!

One page in-4° on skin paper.

Collector's stamp crossed out.

Without place or date.

A very beautiful poem by Cocteau, in alexandrine verse.

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Earth !

I remember the sad bars and the holds well

The smell of a port that smells mostly of human flesh

The port is an old vase where waves stagnate

They died there, jumping over the too-high wall of the dikes

The crates, the bundles of misery, the bales

Of cotton (where the love of travel leads us)

(That's incredible!) Rich man, he takes off the ring

A jeweled cigar for a fig seller

This black man, a real slob, is smoking, leaning on our trunks

Is he susceptible to the siren's song or not?

The mines, thank God the trawler dredges

Softer than his leg, forgetful of jigs

Goodbye to panoramas that leave your hands dirty

My heart is already too full of sorrow

Your vague promises are no longer enough for me

And against us, the wind and the pirates are conspiring

I want to finally understand the root of my fatigue

Whether he's wearing a sailor's outfit, rummaging through his old joke

And chewing homesickness until he's breathless

A death for life at every stop.