Shell the Color of the Moon – Cotton in Your Ears, Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection CalligrammesThemes WarPeriod 20th century

Those who came back from death
Expected one just like it
And all that came from the north
was going to darken the sun

But what do you want
that’s his fate
Hello the sow

It’s when the wake-up call will sound
HELLO THE SOW
The sentinel with the long gaze
The sentinel with the long gaze
And the dugout was called

THE TRANQUIL CENOBITES

The sentinel with the long gaze the sentinel with the long gaze
Hello the sow
So many and so many poppies

The sentinel with the long gaze the sentinel with the long gaze
Hello the sow

So many and so many poppies

From where did so much blood flow
What is it they put in the noggin
Good Lord it got drunk

And without plonk and without jalopy
With water
Hello the sow

The silence of phonographs
Machine guns of cinemas
The whole echelon over there paws
Flowers of fire of shimmering mirages
Since the cannon was thirsty
Hello the sow
And the rearing trajectories
Stumblings of dwarf suns
Over so many torn songs

He has the Star of Benin
But of the monkey in square boxes
Do you think there will be war
Hello the sow
Ah! please
Friend the Englishman
Ah! how ugly he is
your brother your brother your milk brother

And I was eating bread of Genoa
Breathing in their tear gases
Put cotton in your ears
D’siré

Then it was this flower without a name
Barely a breath a memory
When the cannons went away
Now the wheels’ turn hour to run
The whale has other baleen

Bursting that makes us baleen
But put cotton in your ears
Obviously the pennants
Of the signallers
Hello the sow

Here the military band plays
Something
And everyone remembers a cheek
Pink
Because even catchy tunes
Have something heartrending when you hear them at war

Guillaume Apollinaire

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

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