Authors: Francis Ponge

Mute Objects of Expression (6 page)

BOOK: Mute Objects of Expression

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I make no claim to being a poet. I believe my vision is quite commonplace.

Given an object, however ordinary, it seems to me that it invariably presents certain unique qualities which, if clearly and simply expressed, would elicit unanimous and invariable comment; they are the ones I'm trying to elicit.

What's to be gained by this? To bring to life for the human spirit qualities, which are not beyond its
capacity
and which habit alone prevents it from adopting.

What sort of disciplines are required for this venture to succeed? Certainly those of scientific thought, but particularly a large measure of art. And that's why I think one day such research might also legitimately be called poetry.

The examples that follow
¹will reveal what serious groundwork this process assumes (or implies), what tools one may or must invoke, what procedures and rubrics: dictionary, encyclopedia, imagination, telescope, microscope, both ends of opera glasses, lenses for the myopic and the presbyopic, puns, rhyme, contemplation, forgetfulness, volubility, silence, sleep, etc.

One will also observe what reefs must be avoided, what others to be confronted, along with what navigation (what tacking), and what shipwrecks â what shifts in point of view.

It might well be that I'm not qualified to carry out such an undertaking â under any circumstances.

Others will come along and put to better use the procedures I point out. They will be the heroes of tomorrow's spirit.

(Another day.)

After all, what's so unusual about the naÃ¯ve program (viable for all authentic expression) solemnly propounded above?

Probably just this: . . . that instead of feelings or human ventures, I choose as subjects the most indifferent objects possible . . . where the guarantee of the need for expression appears to me (instinctively) to reside in the object's habitual mutism.

. . . Both a guarantee of that need for expression and guarantee of the opposition to language, to standard expressions.

Mute opposable evidence.

OpiniÃ¢tre.
Opinionated: strongly attached to one's opinion.

Papillotes, papillons, papilles.
Paper frills, butterflies, papillae: same root as
vacillate.

DÃ©chirÃ©.
Torn or rent. From a German word
skerran. DÃ©chiqueter.
To shred.

Dents et dentelles.
Teeth and lace.

Chiffons.
Rags, dust cloths.
CrÃ¨me, cremeux.
Cream, creamy.

Åillet.
Carnation: Linnaeus calls it a perfect bouquet, the ready-made bouquet.

Satin.

Festons.
Garlands: “The beautiful forests outlined the crest of the slopes with a long pliant garland.”

FouettÃ©.
Whipped: whipped cream which turns into foam or froth with beating.

Ãternuer.
To sneeze.

Jacasse
â magpie â and Jocasta?

Jabot.
Ruffle: appendage of muslin or lace.

Froisser:
to crumple or to crease; to cause irregular folds. (The source is a sound.)

Friser.
To crimp (as a napkin): to fold into small pleats, like waves.

Friper:
to crease (in the sense of crumple), to crush; confused with
fespe,
from
fespa,
which means rag and also fringe, a kind of plush.

Franges.
Fringe: etymology unknown. 2. Anatomical term: synovial folds.

DÃ©chiqueter:
to shred into small scraps through many cuts.
Se dÃ©chiqueter:
to mutilate oneself.

Contrast it to calm, rounded flowers: arum, lilies, camellias, tuberoses.

Not that it's crazy, but it is violent (though well compacted, put together within reasonable limits).

At stem-tip, from an olive, from a supple acorn of leaves, the luxurious marvels of its linen come unbuttoned.

Carnations, those marvelous rags.

How clean they are.

Breathing them in, you feel a pleasure whose flip side would be a sneeze.

Seeing them, the pleasure you feel at a glimpse of underpants with fine-cut lace, of a young girl who attends to her linens.

For “
se dÃ©boutonner,
” to unbutton or unburden oneself, to come unbuttoned, “unbudded” see
bouton,
button or bud. See also
cicatrice,
scar.

Bouton:
checked, avoid bringing together
bout,
end, and
bouton,
or even
dÃ©boutonner
in one sentence, since it is the same word (from
bouter,
to shove).

And naturally, all is but movement and passing, otherwise life, death, would be incomprehensible.

Thus if they were to invent a pill for dissolving in vases to give the carnation eternal life â by nourishing its cells with mineral extracts â it would still not survive for long as a flower, since the flower is only a moment of the individual, which plays out its role as the species prescribes.

(These first six pieces, the night of June 12 to 13, 1941, in the presence of the white carnations in Mme Dugourd's garden.)

At stem's tip, coming unbudded from a supple olive of leaves, a marvelous ruffle of cool satin with crevices of verdant snow still harboring a bit of chlorophyll, whose perfume stimulates the nostrils with pleasure just short of a sneeze.

Paper frill crinkled dust cloth
Luxurious cool satin rag
Luxurious dust cloth finely laced
Crinkled rag of cool satin
Luxurious kerchief finely laced
Luxurious frippery in cool satin
Lustrous

Ruffle paper frill or kerchief
Luxurious rag finely laced
Dust cloth
Cool satin finely laced
Fragrant frothy frenzied
Stem tip green bamboo
Swelling of polished fingernail
Supple knob bulging with leaves
Multiple fragrant sachets
From which the frothy dress gushes

June 13

Beacon in a buttonhole
Projector
Portable lamp
Magondo

Ruffle dust cloth kerchief
Togs frippery tatters

Billows of linens or ruff
Of cool satin
Opulent assembly
Competition association
Demonstration gathering
Of petals done in humid cloth
Coolly satined

Throng pouring out of communion in a spreading stream
Or finely laced white underpants of a young girl who attends to her linens
Continually giving off the sort of perfume
That threatens such pleasure â bringing you to the verge of a sneeze

Trumpets filled gorged choked
By the redundance of their own expression

Throats entirely choked by tongues

Their pavilions their lips shredded
By the violence of their cries of their expressions

Puckered creased crimped crushed
Fringed festooned flogged
Rumpled buckled cockled
Quilled waffled curled
Slashed ripped pleated tattered
Flounced whorled waved denticulated

Creamy foamy snowy white
Homogeneous blended
Perfect bouquet Ready-made bouquet
Sprung from the supple acorn from the supple pointed olive
That it forces ajar that it splits
At the tip of its slim green bamboo stem
With the well-spaced polished swellings
And tongued as simply as possible

But with July approaching
The carnation is unbudding

June 14

At the tip of its slim green bamboo stem with the polished well-spaced bulges from which two symmetrical leaves come unsheathed very simple little sabers successfully swells an acorn a supple pointed olive that's forced ajar that's rent into carnation from which unbuds

a ruffle of cool satin marvelously crumpled a ruff profuse with little tongues twisted and torn by the violence of their talk:

most particularly a perfume such that it produces on human nostrils a pleasurable effect all but sternutatory

June 15

The stem
of this magnificent hero â example to follow â
is a delicate green bamboo
with vigorous well-spaced swellings
polished as a fingernail

Beneath each one come unsheathed is the word
two very simple little sabers
symmetrically inoffensive

At the tip destined for success
swells an acorn a supple pointed olive

Which suddenly bringing about an overwhelming
modification
forces it apart, pulling it open
and unbudding it?

A marvelous dust cloth of cool satin
a ruffle with profusion of cool flickers
little tongues of the same fabric
twisted and shredded
by the violence of their talk

A trumpet choked
on the redundance of its own cries
at the pavilion shredded by their sheer violence

While to confirm the phenomenon's importance
a perfume continuously is given off
arousing in human nostrils
an effect of intense pleasure
almost sternutatory.

At the tip of a vigorous stalk
trumpets of linens
shredded by the violence of their talk:
a perfume of sternutatory essence