Louis ARAGON - Signed autograph poem - Free zone.

Louis ARAGON (1897-1982)

Signed autograph poem – Free zone.

Two pages in-4°. [Paris]. January 25 [1945]

 

Extraordinary and moving handwritten copy of this octosyllabic poem composed in Carcassonne in September 1940, Zone libre , then published in the collection Le Crève-cœur . The work, published by Gallimard in 1941, consists of twenty-two poems and the essay La Rime en 1940 written by Aragon between October 1939 and October 1940.

The poignant poem testifies to Aragon's poetic genius in mixing the melancholy sweetness of lost loves with the feelings of despair of the war years. Cries of the soul for the homeland, the poet's verses remain the most prodigious of these dark hours.

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Free zone

 

Fading from sadness oblivion

The sound of a broken heart fades

And the ashes whiten the embers

I drank summer like sweet wine

I dreamed during this month of August

In a pink castle in Corrèze

 

What was suddenly

A heavy sob in the garden

A dull reproach in the breeze

Ah don't wake me too early

Just a moment of bel canto

Despair demobilizes

 

For a moment it seemed to me

Hear among the wheat

Confusedly the sound of weapons

Where did this great sorrow come from?

Neither carnation nor rosemary

Have not kept the scent of tears

 

I lost I don't know how

The dark secret of my torment

In my turn the shadow is dismembered

I was looking for no end

This pain without memory

When the September dawn appeared

 

My love I was in your arms

Outside someone whispered

An old song from France

My illness was finally recognized

And its chorus like a bare foot

Troubled the green water of silence

 

Aragon.

The poet Aragon

September 1940.

 

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On the back of the poem, this explanatory letter, dated January 25, 1945, in which Aragon evokes his clandestine pseudonym, François la Colère, and his war works, such as the legendary collection of La Diane française :

Dear Sir, I found your note on my return to Paris. I am sending you the little brochure published illegally under the signature François La Colère . You will find there the “ Ballad of him who sang in the tortures ”, the “ Prelude to the French Diane ” which were read, among others, at the Comédie Française . I will copy you (on the back) the poem you asked me for. I hope this will give you what you need, and thank you for wasting your time on me. Very kindly, Aragon.

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The French rout against Nazi Germany led Aragon to Périgueux. Captured, he managed to escape, took refuge in the free zone and met Pierre Seghers (1940) then Henri Matisse (1941). He became involved in politics and participated in the Resistance by creating with Elsa Triolet the National Committee of Writers for the South Zone and the newspaper La Drôme enarmes . He also committed himself through his poems, published underground, in which the love of women ( Les Yeux d'Elsa , 1942) joined the love of the homeland ( Le Musée Grévin , 1943; La Rose et le Réséda , 1944; There is no happy love ).