Gleams of the Shots – Desire

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection CalligrammesThemes WarPeriod 20th century

My desire is the region that is before me
Behind the Boche lines
My desire is also behind me
After the army zone

My desire is the hillock of Le Mesnil
My desire is there at what I am shooting
Of my desire which is beyond the army zone
I do not speak of it today but I think of it

Hillock of Le Mesnil I imagine you in vain
Barbed wire machine guns enemies too sure of themselves
Too deep under ground already buried

Ca ta clac shots that die as they move away

Watching there late in the night
The Decauville that coughs
The corrugated iron under the rain
And under the rain my bourguignotte

Hear the vehement earth
See the gleams before hearing the shots
And such a shell whistling with madness
Or the tac tac tac monotone and brief full of disgust

I desire
To hold you in my hand Hand of Massiges
So fleshless on the map
The Goethe trench where I fired
I even fired at the Nietzsche trench
Decidedly I respect no glory
Violent and violet night and dark and full of gold at moments
Nights of men only

Night of September 24
Tomorrow the assault
Violent night O night whose dreadful deep cry became
more intense from minute to minute
Night that cried like a woman giving birth
Night of men only

Guillaume Apollinaire

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-gleams-of-the-shots-desire-guillaume-apollinaire/