Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"Quietly. I want to pass where no one yet has passed, quietly! — After you, dearest language."--"Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality" (1925) by André Breton "Je vois bien le cheval ; je ne vois pas la "chevalité" --"Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality" (1925) by André Breton |
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"Introduction au discours sur le peu de réalité" (1925) is an essay by André Breton first published in in the magazine "Commerce".
Its English title reads Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality, as it was translated in 1994 by by Richard Sieburth and Jennifer Gordon.
In this work, Breton indicates how the philosophical realism of the Middle Ages was the basis of poetic experience. He refers to Porphyry.
From this essay comes the often cited quotation "Quietly. I want to pass where no one yet has passed, quietly! — After you, dearest language."
The above translation is taken from Walter Benjamin's English translation from the essay "Surrealism: The Last Snapshot of the European Intelligentsia". The German original reads "Nach Ihnen, liebste Sprache." Note that Benjamin changed the original "beau" (beautiful) for "liebste" (dear).
The original by Breton is: "Après toi, mon beau langage," which literally translates as "After you, my beautiful language."
See also
- Nominalism
- Paucity
- E pur, si muove!
- "Les genres et les espèces existent-ils en soi ou seulement dans l'intelligence?"
- Bedness