Collected Poems in English and French by Samuel Beckett

CONTENTS
    Publishers' Foreword

    Part I: Poems in English
    1. Whoroscope
    2. Gnome
    3. Home Olga
    4. Echo's Bones
        The Vulture
        Enueg I
        Enueg II
        Alba
        Dortmunder
        Sanies I
        Sanies II
        Serena I
        Serena II
        Serena III
        Malacoda
        Da Tagte Es
        Echo's Bones
    5. Six Poems
        Cascando
        Ooftish
        Saint Lô
        dread nay
        Roundelay
        thither

    Part II: Poems in French with some translations
    1. Poèmes 1937–1939
         elles viennent
        they come
         à elle l'acte calme
         être là sans mâchoires sans dents
         Ascension
         La Mouche
         musique de l'indifférence
         bois seul
         ainsi a-t-on beau
         Rue de Vaugirard
         Dieppe
        Dieppe
         Arènes de Lutèce
         jusque dans la caverne ciel et sol
    2. Six Poèmes 1947–1949
         bon bon il est un pays
         Mort de A.D.
         vive morte ma seule saison
         je suis ce cours de sable qui glisse
        my way is in the sand flowing
         que ferais-je sans ce monde
        what would I do without this world
         je voudrais que mon amour meure
        I would like my love to die
    3. Poème 1974
         hors crâne seul dedans
        something there

    Part III: Translations from French with the originals
    1. From Paul Eluard
         L'amoureuse
        Lady Love
         A perte de vue dans le sens de mon corps
        Out of Sight in the Direction of my Body
         A peine défigurée
        Scarcely Disfigured
         Seconde nature
        Second Nature
         La vue
        Scene
         L'univers–solitude
        Universe-Solitude
         Confections
        Confections
    2. From Arthur Rimbaud
         Le bateau ivre
        Drunken Boat
    3. From Guillaume Apollinaire
         Zone
        Zone
    4. From Sébastien Chamfort
         Huit maximes
        Long after Chamfort
          Le sot
         Wit in fools
          Le théâtre tragique
         The trouble with tragedy
          Quand on soutient que les gens
         Better on your arse
          Quand on a été bien tourmenté
         Live and clean forget
          La pensée console
         Ask of all-healing
          L'espérance
         Hope
          Vivre est une maladie
         Sleep till death
          Que le coeur de l'homme
         How hollow heart

    Notes

FOREWORD
    This is the most complete collection of poems that Mr. Beckett authorized. It contains all the work published in English before 1977 with the addition of prewar poems and some later ones. The complete French poems are included in the original by arrangement with Les Editions de Minuit, and six of them have been translated by the author. The first one originated in English. The last section contains those translations from French poets that Samuel Beckett agreed to see republished, most of them commissioned by little magazines before World War II, although the Chamfort maxims came later. The translation of Le Bateau Ivre was long lost before miraculously turning up in private hands as is explained in the Notes.
    The translation made by Samuel Beckett of an anthology of Mexican poetry compiled by Octavio Paz, first published in 1959, is not included here, but is separately available from Grove Press in an edition entitled Mexican Poetry . Other translations, many unsigned, made during the thirties with which Mr. Beckett was unsatisfied, exist in old magazines, but he did not want to see them reissued in book form.

    The Publishers

PART I
POEMS IN ENGLISH

1. WHOROSCOPE
Whoroscope
    What's that?
    An egg?
    By the brothers Boot it stinks fresh.
    Give it to Gillot.

    Galileo how are you
    and his consecutive thirds!
    The vile old Copernican lead-swinging son of a sutler!
    We're moving he said we're off—Porca