Waves – On Prophecies

Poem by Guillaume Apollinaire Collection CalligrammesPeriod 20th century

I have known a few prophetesses
Madame Salmajour had learned in Oceania to tell fortunes with cards
It was over there that she had also had the occasion to take part
In a delectable scene of anthropophagy
She did not speak of it to everyone
As for the future she was never mistaken

A cartomancer from Céret Marguerite I no longer know what
Is equally skilled
But Madame Deroy is the best inspired
The most precise
Everything she told me of the past was true and everything she
Announced to me has come to pass in the time she indicated
I have known a sciomancer but I did not want him to question my shadow
I know a dowser he is the Norwegian painter Diriks

Broken mirror spilled salt or falling bread
May these shapeless gods always spare me
Moreover I do not believe but I watch and I listen and note
That I read fairly well in the hand
For I do not believe but I watch and when possible I listen

Everyone is a prophet my dear André Billy
But for a long time people have been made to believe
That they have no future that they are ignorant forever
And idiots from birth
That one has made one’s peace with it and that no one even has the idea
Of asking whether he knows the future or not

There is no religious spirit in all of that
Neither in superstitions nor in prophecies
Nor in all that is called occultism
There is above all a way of observing nature
And of interpreting nature
That is very legitimate

Guillaume Apollinaire

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

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