on Commerce (english

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a new literary magazine began appearing in paris in the summer of 1924, edited by paul valéry, valery larbaud and léon-paul Fargue. the very title, Commerce (in the sense of ‘intellectual interchange’) indicates its aims. andré Breton has written ironically that poets have three times fewer readers than philosophers, while philosophers have two hundred times fewer readers than do novelists. Commerce is a periodical that publishes the work of poets and thinkers, and is intended for the cultured minority; it comes out four times a year in 1,600 copies ‘on alpha paper’, numbered from 1 to 1,600. in form and content, the journal is somewhat reminiscent of Russian and Central european periodical publications. on its pages we find a whole series of articles on general literary-philosophical topics relating to the tasks of contemporary culture. valéry larbaud, that brilliant writer and expert in foreign literature, a man imbued with the traditions of english fiction, describes in a lengthy letter a journey he made to italy, his visit to the famous writer mario puccini, and his trip to Recanati, the home town of leopardi1 . larbaud’s elegant, flowing style transports the reader far away, like the slow currents of a deep, wide river. no less beautiful are the extracts from his translation of Ulysses, in so far as it is possible to convey in French the complex prose of James Joyce2 .

1 valery larbaud, ‘lettre d’italie’, Commerce, iii, (hiver 1924), pp. 233-285. 2 James Joyce, ‘ulysse: Fragments (traduits de l’anglais par auguste morel et valery larbaud, avec note par valery larbaud), Commerce, i, (été 1924), pp. 121-158.

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Besides larbaud, Commerce has carried poetry by the american t.s. eliot3, the austrian Rainer maria Rilke (composed originally in French)4, by l.-p. Fargue5, and by st-J. perse6, and also articles by perse7 and paulhan8 . andré Breton’s article ‘on the insignificance of Reality’9 and louis aragon’s ‘a wave of Dreams’10, are very curious; these two talented writers expound here the theory of surrealism – the superconscious as a source of inspiration, the creative nature of dreams, the necessity of renewing language and the way people think, the struggle against stale literary forms, and so on. the French language is currently in a state of acute crisis. to renew and enrich the language is the aspiration of a whole series of thinkers and writers. one might even explain the seemingly rather naïve diversion of mots croisés in terms of this same attraction to studying new words, new technical terms and concepts. groupings in current French literature, and especially the left wing of the surrealists, are striving at all costs to expand the boundaries of literature, to find a means of expressing not only rational but also superconscious phenomena, to create in literature something like a ‘fourth dimension’. aragon writes of a certain ‘intellectual substance distinct from rational thinking, which blends into hallucinations and dreams’, and points to the exceptional interest of this area, which has been pioneered by such poets as Rimbaud but so far has not been systematically studied.

Breton, a representative of what one might call ‘militant surrealism’, proposes the artistic representation of objects and images that appear in dreams and which do not yield to any rational explanation or analysis, but which enrich the imagination of poets and writers. whether surrealism will last longer than the Dadaism that preceded it is unknown, but one still must admit that this peculiar group, basing itself in the study of the ‘technique’ of dreams and daydreams, has yielded a whole series of interesting experiments and enriched young literature with new images that are striking and alive.

3 t.s. eliot, ‘the Hollow men (extrait: texte anglais et adaptation de saint-John perse)’, Commerce, iii, (hiver 1924), pp. 9-11. 4 Rainer maria Rilke, ‘la Dormeuse’, Commerce, ii, (automne 1924), pp. 165-169. 5 léon-paul Fargue, ‘nuées’, Commerce, iii, (hiver 1924), pp. 225-231; poème: ‘gare de la douleur’, Commerce, iv, (printemps 1925), pp. 102-109. 6 saint-John perse, ‘Chanson: ‘J’honore les vivants’,’ Commerce, iii, (hiver 1924), pp. 5-7. 7 saint-John perse, ‘amitié du prince’, Commerce, i, (été 1924), pp. 103-119. 8 Jean paulhan, ‘luce, l’enfant négligée’, Commerce, ii, (automne 1924), pp. 159-164. 9 andré Breton, ‘introduction au discours sur le peu de Réalité’, Commerce, iii, (hiver 1924), pp. 27-57. 10 louis aragon, ‘une vague de rêves’, Commerce, ii, (automne 1924), pp. 89-122.

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this aim of renewing language and form is also pursued by léon-paul Fargue in two articles, ‘epaisseurs’11 and ‘suite Familière’12 . in them we encounter a complete programme for contemporary literature. Fargue’s style, notwithstanding its ‘revolutionariness’, is typically French – vital, witty, and to the point:

‘Cut off lyricism’s hair, even give its wings a little trim. a loud-sounding phrase is the cry of a society lady. one word, just one small word, but in the right place, i beg of thee’.

‘Columns are essential. the time will come when the building will stand and you can quietly remove the columns, but the ghost of them must always be sensed’.

‘too many words. only give space to the leaders. grant liberty only to the chosen word – replete, bold, and well-armed’.

‘Do not mix wine with water. For me art is pure crystal, a kernel of aniline, which can colour a glass, a tumbler, a goblet, a barrel. essentially, the glass no longer interests me’.

‘they offer us louis Xiv’s old slippers, but we prefer to go barefoot’.

‘i call bourgeois all those who have said no to themselves, to love, and to struggle, in the name of holy peace and quiet. they douse the lamp and for illumination use a neighbouring streetlamp. they come close to language and ideas only when they’re sure they’re dead and won’t bite. they do not insult a lion’. in the autumn issue of Commerce we may read a letter by paul valéry, using the pseudonym ‘emily teste’13 . this is the confession of the naïve and humble wife of a great man. ‘i am not only a witness to his life’, writes this ‘emily teste’, as if addressing the editors, ‘i am also a separate part, a separate organ of his life, which however has no outstanding importance… He never tells me i’m stupid, and this touches me profoundly… you need to observe him at the times when he’s lost in his thoughts – then, his face changes, loses its definition – just a bit further, and he’d be invisible. But i tell you, sir, when he comes back out of this abyss, it’s as if he opens up new countries inside me… he embraces me like a mountain side of life and reality, he discovers himself within me, he comes awake within me – what happiness!’ taken as a whole, Commerce offers beautifully chosen, unfailingly interesting material. the translations of foreign authors are distinguished by their integrity and their artistry of execution. thanks to the exceptional

11 léon-paul Fargue, ‘Épaisseurs’, Commerce, i, (été 1924), pp. 27-59. 12 léon-paul Fargue, ‘suite Familière’, Commerce, ii, (automne 1924), pp. 31-55. 13 paul valéry, ‘lettre de madame emilie teste’, Commerce, ii, (automne 1924), pp. 5-30.

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composition of the editorial board, the reader can get to know the most fascinating experiments by contemporary european groupings, and the most striking examples of the latest artistic literature.

elena izvol′skaya