Tristan Tzara

The Weight of The World by Tristan Tzara

(an extract)

I struggle on
the anger the happiness admitted
day for day and tooth for tooth
here's the hour that stirs
night strikes
these are the clogs of those who set out
to sea to batter the waves with the weight of their bodies
with their fists with all their faith in life
upset the depthless drawers
their truth has no price
it's the open laughter
it urges on the daring of the world
it causes the mountains of light
torn from the seaweed's evasive kisses
to climb to the light
it's the armed song on the fringes of light
there is only one man to hear
at the height of the brawl
tender cry of the babe-in-arms
the future to cry still louder
and the flashing waves
pile up the mounting clarities
surrounded by a thousand promised languages
joy i could foretell you
reinvent your dazzle
until your image on earth
was hidden from me under the dregs of grimaces
the stinking rags of death

I struggle on
i've seen lost eyes the war
beseeching eyes turned away from the war
wide-eyed the war
cowardly eyes low ignoble eyes
the eyes of little girl lovers
and mothers
but don't talk anymore of mothers' eyes
their brightness has forever
fulled the brightness of ours
they've watched wall of silence
for the fishermen's return
their foreheads pressed to the window-panes
the storm burst out at sea
a champagne cork lightning fastener
the lighting all along the body of a naked woman
standing on the edge of the horizon
the champagne gushes out
it's a festival free for all
the bass drum setting the world afloat
jump who can
turn turn each one
the storm around you
there are all kinds of people
one's broken the bank
another's dandled the little girly
on his knee
the little dancer you know the little girly
the grand life at last the grand
the grandest is so obvious
while one by one the ships fall
on their knees
it's better than at the slaughter house
bodies tossed about
like flies
arms torn off
endless tears
coffins
faces without noses i don't know what without mouths without ears
put that back in order for me
and get on with it
at your command general
deaths in shreds deaths for nothing
comic deaths easy deaths
why haven't they waited for the grand dance
that's coming here
hardly noticeable
button warfare closures lighnight
neon warfare hesitation waltz
death by laughing
forward the music
dead people in lace
mangled packed liquified
tossed on the rubbish-heap
what does the fitting song matter
love song sad song life song
at your command general
there's no possible song left
love tossed in the dust bin
suppression of sorrows cure
by the release of closures lightning
you don't have to say it
it's a frenzied dance
block-head
i ask you
it's the expressive waltz
block-head
devil's brass foundry
hag-head
you want to laugh
automatic release
whore-head
billiard-head
headline pig-head
king-head mule-head
the war above our heads
what
the war
who's being fooled
i struggle on
i've seen the horror engraved right on the retinas
of those who by wanting to survive
have died a thousand times at the back of their eyes friends
the bottom of a sea shows all the memories
bottom of grief
the dreams flow round there green cavalcades
with long strands of seaweed
deep is the breath of the wind between the rocks
and long long the history of tortures
i struggle on
the night is long
the story for the rest of us
soon reaches it's end
will we have stopped believing in grief
we must take life
as it is again
face to face
good and evil
always as a comrade
shaking it from head to toe
or talking to it gently
according to what it says according to what it thinks
take it round the waist
shake it like a plum tree
and perhaps we will have to fight
so that some life is left us comrades
that each one finds his share
filled with dreams sown with childhoods
the first clarity
common to all and which has no name

the corn is till not ripe
stalks paler than thistles
in the autumn wind

the vineyard still lies fallow
man has laid his greatness
at the foot of the abyss

the sun prepares peaceful fellings
the forests will pale
with an explosive thirst for greenery

where are you newborn youth
the crimson flowers of youth
on your delicate cheeks

like the seagull's lost cry
I've lost you
the wind that night

it's true i struggle on
but in each laughing face
appears apple of my eye
my love
the present and future love
the weight of the world

Translated by Lee Harwood