The Archangelical

The Tomb1

Criminal immensity
cracked vase of the immensity
limitless ruin2

flaccid immensity which overcomes me

I am spineless
the universe is guity [coupable]

winged madness my madness

tears open the immensity
and the immensity tears at me

I am alone
the blind will read these lines
in interminable tunnels

I fall within the imensity

which falls into itself
it is blacker than my death

the sun is black

the beauty of a being3 is the depths of caves a cry
of definitive night

what loves in the light

is the desire of the night
the shiver by which it is frozen

I lie
and the universe nails itself
to my demented lies

the immensity
and me
we denounce the lies of one another

truth dies [muert]

and I cry
that truth lies [ment]
1 Originally a separate poem, entitled “The Sorrow”
2 Limitless devastation (MS1)
3 the meauty of an angel... ...the cry(MS1) the beauty of a girl... ...the cry (MS 2) ...the cry (MS3 & TS)
my sugary head
that fever wears out
is the suicide of truth

non-love is truth
and all lies in the absence of love
nothing4 exists which does not lie

compared to non-love
love is cowardly
and does not love

love is a parody of non-love

truth a parody of the lie
the universe a gay suicide

within non-love
the immensity falls into itself
not knowing what to do

for the others everything is at peace5

the worlds turning majestically
in their calm monotony

the universe is in me as it is in itself

nothing separates us any more
I run into it within myself

in the infinite calm

where laws enchain
it glides toward the impossible – immensely

horror
of a world turning around
the object of desire is more distant

the glory of man is

however great they may be
in the will of an other

I am
the world is with me
pushed outside of the possible6
4 ...in the world... (MS1)
5 to the others everything seems at peace (MS 1)
6 ...out beyond [par-delà] the possible (MS 1)
I am nothing but the laughter
of the infantile night
wherein falls the immensity

I am the dead
I am the lind
the airless shadow

like rivers in the sea

the noise and the light in me
lose themselves endlessly

I am the father
and the tomb
of the heavens

the excess of darkness

is the burst of the star
the cold of the grave is a die

death rolls the die

and the depths of the heavens jubilate
the night which falls within me.
II

Time oppresses me I fall

and slide on my knees
my hands touch the night

adieu streams of light

nothing remains to me but the shadow
the dregs the blood

I await the strike [coup] of the bell

when crying out
I entered into the shadow
III

A long bare foot upon my mouth

a long foot against the heart
you are my thirst my fever

foot of whiskey
foot of wine
foot mad to smash

oh my horse whip my sorrow

most high heels smashing me
I cry of not dying7

oh thirst
unappeasable thirst
inescapable desert

sudden gust of death wherein I cry

on both knees blind
and the eye-sockets empty [vides]

corridor wherein I laugh from an insensate night

corridor wherein I laugh within the slamming doors
wherein I worship an arrow

and I burst out in sobs

the clarion call of death [coup de clarion]
bellows in my ears.

7 “pleure de ne pas mourir” - allusion to a section of of Paul Éluard's book Capital of Pain [Capitale de Douleur, entitled
“mourier de ne pas mourir” - Dying from not dying.
IV

Beyond [au-delà] my death

one day
the earth turns in the heavens

I am dead
and the darkness
alternates endlessly with the day

the universe is shut off to me

within it I remain blind
given to nothingness

nothingness is only my self

the universe is only my grave [tombe]
the sun is only death

my eyes are blind lightning

my heart is the sky
wherein the storm bursts

in my self
at the depths of an abysss
the immense universe is death

I am the fever
the desire
I am the thirst

the joy which removes your dress

and the wine which makes you laugh
at no longer being dressed

in a bowl of gin
a festival night
the stars falling from the sky

I guzzle down lightning in great gulps

I will burst out with laughter
the lightning in my heart.
The Dawn

Spit the blood

it is the dew
the saber by which I will die

from the edge of the well

behold the starry sky
has the transparency of tears

I find you in the star

I find you in death
you are the frost of my mouth
you have the scent of a dead woman

your breasts gape like a coffin

and laugh at me from the beyond [l'au-delà]
your two long thighs rave deliriously
your belly is bare like a death-rattle

you are as beautiful as fear

you are as nade as a dead woman.

the affliction is unnameable

the heart is a grimace

that which curdles in the milk

is the mad laughter of death.

A star is arisen
you are I am the void
a start is arisen
sorrowful like the heart

gleaming like a tear

you whistle it is death
the star fills the sky
sorrowful like a tear

I know that you do not love

but the star that rises
sharp [coupante] like death
exhausts and twists the heart.
I am accursed voilà my mother
that this night is long
my long night without tears

night greedy for love

oh broken heart of stone [de pierre]
hell of my ashy mouth

you are the death of tears

curse you
my accursed heart my sick eyes search for you

you are the void and the ash

headless bird on wings beating the night
the universe is made of your little hopes

the universe is your sick heart and mine

beating at brushing at death
in the cemetery of hope

my sorrow is the joy

and the ashes the fire

Tooth of hatred [haine]

you are accursed [maudite]
whomever is accursed will pay

you will pay your share [part] of hatred [haine]

you will bite the horrible sun
which is accursed bites the sky

with me you will tear

your heart beloved by fright
your being strangled by ennui

you are the friend of the sun

there is no rest for you
your fatigue is my insanity

From dung in the head

I burst I hate the heavens
who am I to spit out the skies
it is bitter to be immense
my eyes are fat pigs
my heart is black ink
my sex is a dead sun
fallen stars in a bottomless pit
I cry and my tongue flows
it matters little that the immensity is round
and rolls in a guillotine basket
I love death I invite it
in the slaughterhouse of the Holy Father. [Saint-Père]

Black death you are my bread

I eat you in the heart
terror is my tenderness [douceur]
madness is in my hand.

To knot the hangman's noose

with the teeth of a dead horse.

Softness of water
rage of wind

burst of laughter of the star

morning of beautiful sun

there is nothing that I do not dream [rêve]

there is nothing that I do not scream [crie]

in the space of your breasts.

Limpid from head to toe

fragile like the dawn
the wind has broken the heart

with the endurance of anguish

the black night is a church
wherein they slit the throat of a pig

trembling from head to toe

fragile like death
agony my big sister

you are colder than the earth.

You will recognize happiness

when you perceive it dying

your sleep and your absence

join in the grave. [tombe]
You are the beating of the heart
to which I listen beneath my ribs
and the suspended breath.

My sobs on your knees

I will shake the night

shadow of wings on a field

my lost child's heart.

My laughing sister you are death

failing heart you are death
within my arms you are death

we gave drunk you are death

like the wind you are death
like the lightning you are death

death laughs death is joy.

Alone you are my life

of lost sobs
separating me from death
I see you through tears
and I foresee my death

if I did not love death

sorrow
and desire for you
would kill me

your absence
your distress
makes me nauseous
time for me to love death
its time to bite its hands.

To love is to agonize
to love is to love dying
monkeys reek as they die

enough I want myself dead

I am too flaccid for that
enough I am tired
enough I love you like a nut
I laugh at myself the ass of ink
braying to the stars of the sky

naked you were bursting with laughter

gigantic beneath the canopy
I grovel so as to be no longer

I desire to die of you

I want to annihilate myself
in your sick caprices.
The Void

Flames encircled us
beneath our footsteps the abyss opened
a silence of milk of frost of bones
enveloped us with a halo.

You are the transfigured

my destiny has broken your teeth
your desire is a hiccup
your nails have found the void

you speak like laughter

the winds stand your hair on end
anguish wringing the heart
precipitates your mockery.

Your hands behind y head

seize hold only of death
your laughing kisses open only
onto my infernal poverty

beneath the sordid canopy

where bats hang
your marvelous nudity
is nothing else than a tearless lie

my cry calls to you in the desert

where you will not come
my cry calls to you in the desert
where your dreams will come true.

Your moth sealed to mine

and your tongue in my teeth
immense death will welcome you
immense night will fall.

Then I will have made a void

in your abandoned head
your absence will be naked
like a stockingless leg

While awaiting the disaster

where the light is dying out
I will be soft in your heart
like the cold of death