10,000 Dawns: The Love Poems of Claire and Yvan Goll (Companions for the Journey)

Tangled lives.These are touching poems, sometimes touched by genius One poem by Yvan is printed in the original French, one by Claire in her German, otherwise English translations by Thomas.R.Crowe and Nan Watkins, who each give a short introduction.An attractive little book with typically sketchy drawings by Chagall. Here is Claire (Nan Watkins) 'I lost the evening star / My favourite jewelry / In a taxi / / I lost my beloved / On the playground of angels / Between Mars and France / / A monsoon starts in my eyes / The ravens are in mourning / The young birds stop growing / / My beloved and the evening star / Were one and the same: / Flowers, go on strike with me. Stop smiling!' the apparent insouciance reminds me of Akiko Yosano's love poems Tangled Hair (Tuttle, 1987)