[cravate]
la cravate douloureuse que tu portes 
et qui t’orne ô civilisé ôte-la 
si tu veux bien respirer

[montre, remontoir]
comme l’on s’amuse bien

[bord droit de la montre]
la beauté de la vie passe la douleur de mourir

[heures]
mon cœur
les yeux
l’enfant
Agla
la main
Tircis
semaine
l’infini redressé par un fous de philosophe
les Muses aux portes de ton corps
le bel inconnu
et le vers dantesque luisant et cadavérique
les heures

[aiguilles]
Il est – 5
Et tout sera fini

Note: this is a transcription of words that appear in a pictorial format. The words in brackets indicate where to find the words in the picture. Line-breaks have been added arbitrarily. See Poèmes publiés du vivant d'Apollinaire, 1901-1918 [Sorbonne, external site]

Text Authorship:

• by Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki (1880 - 1918), as Guillaume Apollinaire, "La Cravate et la montre", written 1914, appears in Calligrammes - Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre, in 1. Ondes, Paris, Éd. Gallimard, first published 1918 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Robert Caby (1905 - 1992), "La Cravate et la montre", 1945, published 1991 [ voice and piano ], Éd. de l'AARC (Association des Amis de Robert Caby) [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2016-03-16
Line count: 24
Word count: 85