Saltimbanques, Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire

To Louis Dumur.

In the plain the mountebanks
Move off along the gardens
Before the door of gray inns
Through villages without churches

And the children go on ahead
The others follow dreaming
Each fruit tree resigns itself
When from far off they beckon to it

They have weights round or square
Drums hoops of gilded wood
The bear and the monkey wise animals
Beg for coins as they pass by

Guillaume Apollinaire

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