The Starry Head – The Champagne Vintner

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection CalligrammesThemes WarPeriod 20th century

The regiment arrives
The village is almost asleep in the fragrant light
A priest has his helmet on his head
Is the champagne bottle artillery or not
The vines like ermine on a shield
Hello soldiers
I saw them passing and passing again at a run
Hello soldiers champagne bottles where the blood ferments
You will stay a few days and then go back up the line
Drawn up like the vines
I send my bottles everywhere like the shells of a charming artillery

The night is blond o blond wine
A vintner sang bent over in his vineyard
A vintner without a mouth at the edge of the horizon
A vintner who was himself the living bottle
A vintner who knows what war is
A champagne vintner who is a gunner

It is evening now and they play at fly
Then the soldiers will go up there
Where the Artillery uncorks its sparkling bottles
Come Adieu gentlemen try to come back
But no one knows what may happen

Guillaume Apollinaire

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