Paul Éluard — a remark

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“We need few words to express what is essential; we need all the words to make it real.”

Original: Il nous faut peu de mots pour exprimer l’essentiel; il nous faut tous les mots pour le rendre réel. — The remark distinguishes between expressing an essential idea and giving that idea full reality through language. · Avenir de la poésie, 1937 (French)

About Paul Éluard

Paul Éluard

14 December 1895–18 November 1952

Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel on 14 December 1895 in Saint-Denis, near Paris, became one of the defining French poets of the twentieth century. His career crossed some of the century’s most turbulent landscapes: the First World War, the invention of Dada and Surrealism, the rise of fascism, the German…

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