On my lesson notebooks
on my writing-desk on trees
on sand on snow
I write your name

On all printed pages
and all empty pages
on stone on blood on paper on ashes
I write your name

On gilded images
on soldiers’ side-arms
on the royal crown
I write your name

On jungle and on desert
on birds-nests on gorse-bushes
on the echo of my childhood
I write your name

On the marvels of the night
on the white bread of the day
on all coupled seasons
I write your name

On all my scraps of blue
on the musty sun pond
on the living moon lake
I write your name

On fields on the horizon
on the wings of birds
on the mill of shadows
I write your name

On each puff of dawn
on the sea of ships
on the crazy mountain
I write your name

On the foam of clouds
on the sweat of storms
on the thick insipid rain
I write your name

On all scintillating shapes
on the bells of colors
on the truth of flesh
I write your name

On the waking paths
on the branching roads
on overflowing city squares
I write your name

On the lamp that’s lit
on the lamp snuffed out
on all my reunited houses
I write your name

On fruit cut in half
in my mirror in my bedroom
on my bed’s hollow shell
I write your name

On my greedy tender dog
on his pricked-up ears
on his clumsy paw
I write your name

On the springboard of my door
on all familiar things
on the flood of consecrated fire
I write your name

On all harmonious flesh
on the foreheads of my friends
on every outstretched hand
I write your name

On the window of surprises
on lips that wait
far above all silence
I write your name

On my destroyed asylums
on my ruined beacons
on the walls of my ennui
I write your name

On absence without longing
on naked solitude
on the staircases of death
I write your name

On health regained
on danger vanished
on hope without remembrance
I write your name

And by the power of a word
I begin my life again
I was born to know you
and to name you

Liberté

Liberté was written by Paul Éluard in 1942 while he was working with the French Resistance.

The translation is by Teo Savory. Liberté has been handset, handprinted, and handbound by Alan Brilliant for Unicorn Press, PO Box 3307, Greensboro, NC 27402. Unicorn is one of the best small presses around; write for their free catalogue. Our thanks to Teo Savory and to Unicorn Press for permission to reprint Liberté.

Translation © Copyright 1977 Teo Savory