Tristan Tzara 2004 9

Classic Poetry Series
Tristan Tzara
- poems -
Publication Date:
2004
Publisher:
Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive
Tristan Tzara(1896 - 1963)
Tristan Tzara (born Samuel or Samy Rosenstock, also known as S. Samyro; April
16 1896–December 25, 1963) was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet,
essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary
and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the
founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement. Under
the influence of Adrian Maniu, the adolescent Tzara became interested in
Symbolism and co-founded the magazine Simbolul with Ion Vinea (with whom he
also wrote experimental poetry) and painter Marcel Janco. During World War I,
after briefly collaborating on Vinea's Chemarea, he joined Janco in Switzerland.
There, Tzara's shows at the Cabaret Voltaire and Zunfthaus zur Waag, as well as
his poetry and art manifestos, became a main feature of early Dadaism. His work
represented Dada's nihilistic side, in contrast with the more moderate approach
favored by Hugo Ball.
After moving to Paris in 1919, Tzara, by then one of the "presidents of Dada",
joined the staff of Littérature magazine, which marked the first step in the
movement's evolution toward Surrealism. He was involved in the major polemics
which led to Dada's split, defending his principles against André Breton and
Francis Picabia, and, in Romania, against the eclectic modernism of Vinea and
Janco. This personal vision on art defined his Dadaist plays The Gas Heart (1921)
and Handkerchief of Clouds (1924). A forerunner of automatist techniques, Tzara
eventually rallied with Breton's Surrealism, and, under its influence, wrote his
celebrated utopian poem The Approximate Man.
During the final part of his career, Tzara combined his humanist and anti-fascist
perspective with a communist vision, joining the Republicans in the Spanish Civil
War and the French Resistance during World War II, and serving a term in the
National Assembly. Having spoken in favor of liberalization in the People's
Republic of Hungary just before the Revolution of 1956, he distanced himself
from the French Communist Party, of which he was by then a member. In 1960,
he was among the intellectuals who protested against French actions in the
Algerian War.
Tristan Tzara was an influential author and performer, whose contribution is

credited with having created a connection from Cubism and Futurism to the Beat
Generation, Situationism and various currents in rock music. The friend and
collaborator of many modernist figures, he was the lover of dancer Maja Kruscek
in his early youth and was later married to Swedish artist and poet Greta
Knutson.
www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 1

Cinema Calendar Of The Abstract Heart - 09
the fibres give in to your starry warmth

a lamp is called green and sees
carefully stepping into a season of fever
the wind has swept the rivers' magic
and i've perforated the nerve
by the clear frozen lake
has snapped the sabre
but the dance round terrace tables
shuts in the shock of the marble shudder
new sober
Tristan Tzara

Proclamation Without Pretension
Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born

"ART"-parrot word-replaced by DADA,
PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief
The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the

poet a druggist TODAY the criticism
of balances no longer challenges with resemblances
Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-

theticized and hypnotized by the hyacinths
of the hypocritical-looking muezzins
CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-

ACT CALCULATIONS
Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there is

no such thing as importance there is no transparence
or appearance
MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTS

BLIND MEN take the stage
THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding. I write because it is

natural exactly the way I piss the way I'm sick
ART NEEDS AN OPERATION
Art is a PRETENSION warmed by the

TIMIDITY of the urinary basin, the hysteria born
in THE STUDIO
We are in search of
the force that is direct pure sober
UNIQUE we are in search of NOTHING
we affirm the VITALITY of every IN-
STANT
the anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics

At this moment I hate the man who whispers
before the intermission-eau de cologne-
sour theatre. THE JOYOUS WIND
If each man says the opposite it is because he is

right
Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood

-submarine formation of transchromatic aero-
planes, cellular metals numbered in
the flight of images
above the rules of the

and its control
BEAUTIFUL
It is not for the sawed-off imps

who still worship their navel
Tristan Tzara

The Great Lament Of My Obscurity Three
where we live the flowers of the clocks catch fire and the plumes encircle the
brightness in the distant sulphur morning the cows lick the salt lilies
my son
my son
let us always shuffle through the colour of the world
which looks bluer than the subway and astronomy
we are too thin
we have no mouth
our legs are stiff and knock together
our faces are formeless like the stars
crystal points without strength burned basilica
mad : the zigzags crack
telephone
bite the rigging liquefy
the arc
climb
astral
memory
towards the north through its double fruit
like raw flesh
hunger fire blood
Tristan Tzara

To Make A Dadist Poem
Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
Cut out the article.
Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them
all in a bag.
Shake gently.
Next take out each cutting one after the other.
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you.
And there you are--an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even
though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.
Tristan Tzara

Vegetable Swallow
two smiles meet towards

the child-wheel of my zeal
the bloody baggage of creatures
made flesh in physical legends-lives
the nimble stags storms cloud over

rain falls under the scissors of
the dark hairdresser-furiously
swimming under the clashing arpeggios
in the machine's sap grass

grows around with sharp eyes
here the share of our caresses
dead and departed with the waves
gives itself up to the judgment of time

parted by the meridian of hairs
non strikes in our hands
the spices of human pleasures
Tristan Tzara

Tristan Tzara 2004 9

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Classic Poetry Series

Tristan Tzara was an influential author and performer, whose contribution is

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 1

the fibres give in to your starry warmth

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 2

Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born

The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the

Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-

CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-

Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there is

MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTS

THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding. I write because it is

ART NEEDS AN OPERATION

Art is a PRETENSION warmed by the

the anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 3

If each man says the opposite it is because he is

Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood

above the rules of the

It is not for the sawed-off imps

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 4

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 5

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 6

two smiles meet towards

the nimble stags storms cloud over

in the machine's sap grass

gives itself up to the judgment of time

www.PoemHunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive 7

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