Time to Hush Up

by Paul Éluard

(from Les Malheurs des Immortels)

translated from the French by Ira Sadoff

 

Close to the rim of the water, the straight-haired coquette clears the light in her chubby eyes like lovers. She loves to show her ability smile at the mirrored surface. She spreads her fingers, her skin like an Amazon, with the force of arms. She spreads the mast of her breast at the foot of the ruins and falls asleep in the twilight of her chewed nails by the twining plants.

 

Paul Éluard needs no introduction from us.

Ira Sadoff’s first book, Settling Down, will be issued by Houghton Mifflin this spring. (Spring 1975)