Chapter 34 II Departure from Montparnasse to the War (1) Writer with a Broken Arm

The first qualification of a novelist: must be a liar. bryce sandras "I want to tell you that a friend of mine, Bryce Sandras, one of the best poets out there, has had an amputated arm." On November 6, 1915, Guillaume Apollinaire, in a letter to Madeleine, told her that the Russian citizen Frederick Sauce (also known as Blaise Sandras) was injured news.It was this Sandras and the Italian Liciotto Canudo who jointly called on foreigners in France to participate in the French Defense War. Sandras, under 30 years old.He ran away from home at the age of 15, and visited many places one country after another: Germany, England, Russia, India, China, the United States and Canada, and finally came to France for the first time in 1907, and the second time was Two years before the outbreak of the First World War, he finally settled in France.

He has engaged in countless professions, has had contact with various people and social classes, he speaks out for extreme liberalism and anarchism, and at the same time he is also a poet, a poet who loves to travel. In 1912, when people in New York celebrated the Feast of the Assumption, Sandras, who was suffering from hunger and cold, entered the Presbyterian church in order to sit there to keep warm while listening to Austrian composer Haydn's "Genesis".He returned to his room again, sat down at the table and began to write a poem.As he was writing, he fell asleep, woke up a few hours later, and continued writing, and so he wrote all night.In the morning, with a clear mind, he reread the first poem produced in this predicament, and gave it a title: "The Feast of the Assumption in New York."

Three months later, Sandras came to Paris.He lived reluctantly but courageously, co-founding a magazine, The New Man, with a few anarchist friends.He financed the publication of the first issue of the magazine with proceeds from ticket sales for organized shows at the Palace Theatre.He shared a hotel with a poet in the Rue du Mont, Saint-Etienne.Life is still very poor.He often wandered around the "Beehive" area, often went to the "Five Street Corner" tavern to drink liquor, cooperated with several magazines, and sold some original books he got a few years ago to barely make ends meet.One day, I came across Modigliani, Chagall and Fernand Leche in the "Beehive" area.At a lecture on anarchism, he happened to meet Victor Serge, the Russian translator of his first novel "Gold".

However, his greatest wish is to get acquainted with Guillaume Apollinaire.Why must you get to know him?Because he was the only one who defended the avant-garde without hesitation. He believed that the person suspected of stealing the "Mona Lisa" must be an adventurer. After returning to Paris from America, Sandras once sent his "Ascension Day in New York" to Apollinaire, but did not receive any reply. One day in September 1912, Sandras passed by the Inventory Publishing bookstore and discovered the book "Heretic Leader".He began to read the book and was very interested in it. Because he was penniless, he put the book in his pocket and left the bookstore.Unfortunately, it happened to be discovered by a policeman passing by the bookstore.Bryce Sandras was arrested and put in detention.How to do it?He wrote to the author of "Heretic Leader", asking him to go to the stock bookstore to pay for the book for him, and to find some connections to release him.However, he was released before his letter was sent.

A few months later, Sandras met Apollinaire at the Fuller Tavern (this is what Milim Sandras defended, and others said: Apollinaire received "The Virgin of New York") After Ascension Day, asking Sandras to come see him). Apollinaire is seven years older than the author of "Ascension Day in New York".When Bryce Sandras saw him, Robert Delaunay and his wife Sonia Delaunay were by Apollinaire's side.If Salmon is to be believed, Delaunay is famous for his use of blue to paint red fish.He is completely thoughtless and never smiles.Apollinaire regards him as a master of "Orpheusism" and often praises the way he and his wife dress up in a very special and unique way: Sonia's purple suit, made of rose red, blue and bright red taffeta and A tulle bodice; a red coat with a blue collar by Robert, two-tone leather shoes, a green jacket, a blue vest with a red tie.All this happened before the war. In August 1914, the Delaunays slipped to Spain...

Bryce strikes up a conversation with Sonia first, with whom he speaks Russian.Sonia welcomed Sandras to her studio in Great August Street.In front of all the guests present, including Apollinaire, Sandras read his "Ascension Day in New York": Oh, God!today is your day, I read in an ancient book the heroic deeds of your suffering, The book is full of stories about you worrying about and working hard for ordinary people And the most true and good persuasive teachings... This is really a miraculous and wonderful masterpiece: the poem has completely free rhythm, simple language, and concise writing style, directly involving the modern world, cities, streets and people in modern life... It is a complete revolution of classical symbolism.

Apollinaire was overwhelmed in front of him (but if the reading of the poem really happened, Apollinaire should have read it, because we have seen that Sandras has already sent his poems to Apollinaire er).At that time, the "French Courier" was about to publish his collection of poems entitled "Alcohol", also known as "Shochu".He gathered all his works since 1898 and sorted them in chronological order.Then he suddenly decided to do away with all punctuation, thinking that the rhyme of the poem would suffice without the use of punctuation (Pierre Levedi created the space between verse and vernacular, later Jean Cocteau in This method is also used in his "Cape of Good Hope").

When correcting the proof of the poetry collection, Apollinaire added a new poem "Region" at the beginning of the book that may have been created in the summer and revised at the home of Gabriel Biffei and Picabia in the Jura Mountains in October.First published in the December issue of Soiree de Paris: you're finally tired of the old world Shepherdess The sheep on the Eiffel Tower Bridge are shouting this morning Are you tired of living in ancient Greece and Rome? And here even the cars seem like antiquated things Only religion is still new like an airport terminal The same modernity (not new to Apollinaire) is present in Sandras' poems, as are cities, streets and religions...

The book "Alcohol" was launched and sold in bookstores, and Sandras congratulated Apollinaire.At the same time, his ego was somewhat hurt: "Zone" was too similar to his "Assumption Day in New York."Because Sandras did not write any articles evaluating "Alcohol", Apollinaire was angry.Sandras also retaliated, writing to his elder brother (Apollinaire) implicitly reproaching him for not writing an inscription on the book "Region" given to his little brother.The question of who came first in the writing of these two works caused great harm to the relationship between the two.Because of this, Sandras was very indifferent to Apollinaire.Apollinaire tried every means to hear his explanation, but he tried in vain, and the Russian poet always refused to explain to him.

The relationship between them has been deadlocked like this, no one can prove anything, and no one wants to prove anything.According to Jacques Rubaud, even Tristan Charat sometimes euphemistically said that "Alcohol" was revised according to "Trans-Siberian Prose", and said viciously: "You all believe that it was all written by Apollinaire." Is it? No, Sandras is responsible for it!" But one thing is wrong: "Alcohol" precedes "Trans-Siberia". In addition, the author also praised Apollinaire in his "Trans-Siberia": As Guillaume Apollinaire said: "Forgive me, I no longer understand the writing techniques of old poems."

From this alone, we can see that Sandras's "transsexual sonnet" written in 1916 reminds people of Apollinaire's "Calligrammes (picture poems)", or that Sandras has no punctuation The poem is based on "Alcohol"... But Apollinaire is not Picasso, and Sandras is not Braque.There is nothing in common between them, although there may be intersections and similarities between the sources of inspiration of the two poets, they are not the same (the modern consciousness of that era has been fully realized by Cubism and Futurism in the field of painting). manifested itself).Apollinaire obviously does not need Sandras in his creation, and Sandras is unwilling to be Apollinaire's enemy.In any case, Bryce Sandras later admitted that the poem whose title was changed from "Shochu" to "Alcohol" was the author's own creation alone. Sandras is very good at rhetoric, which may be the source of his endless wealth.According to the American novelist Ernest Hemingway: "As long as he doesn't drink too much, people are interested in listening to him spouting lies, rather than listening to others telling true stories..." Does Sandras really believe that after Apollinaire, Chaplin's "Broken Hand" and "Soldier Charlotte" were also inspired by the characters in his works by Bikov? Did he indeed plagiarize the "Round Table Fiction" published by Payaut Publishing House for Apollinaire (it is said that he also did it for others) in the Mazarin Library? Maybe. Is it true that as he said, he was once Apollinaire's black African artwork, and he wrote some romance books or chapters of some historical novels for Apollinaire?And did René Dalize, Maurice Renard and André Billy really only write fragments of it? Maybe, maybe not. Walt Whitman (1819-1892), American poet, published by Apollinaire in a 1913 issue of "The French Courier".Is the funeral article really pure fabrication?For this reason, Apollinaire suffered fierce attacks from many readers of this moderate magazine. This is for sure... Walt Whitman was one of the greatest American poets of the 20th century.The circulation of his only collection of poems in France has increased year by year, and it has had a huge influence on prose poets.His life must have fascinated the young Sandras, who shared Whitman's passions—travelling, animals of all kinds, and freedom.He told Apollinaire about the death of the poet and his funeral twenty years ago.Based on these seemingly real materials, Apollinaire freely wrote a most indulgent lyric poem.The article was published in the French Courier magazine on April 1, 1913, and it was thought to be a joke.Maybe it was a joke, but it was a Bryce Sandras joke. The French Courier recounted that Whitman had organized a funeral for himself: not a burial, but an opportunity for everyone to feast on delicacies.He also invited a brass band, prepared a lot of delicacies, vats of beer and whiskey... The people who attended the funeral were mainly drunkards, journalists, politicians, agricultural workers, herdsmen, and children. And a lot of sodomites... all these people are all walking along with the coffin, beating the coffin with their fists.The funeral ended with an unusually grand carnival banquet, and 50 people were arrested by the police who rushed to the rescue. Apollinaire spared no effort when writing, and readers also spared no effort when reading.But the article sparked protests: How could a serious literary magazine like the French Courier tolerate the portrayal of the artist Walt Whitman as a morally immoral, alcoholic homosexual? Eight months later, Apollinaire published an article in the French Courier magazine published in December 1913, and took full responsibility for the article.He reminded everyone that his article was based on the account of an eyewitness, but he firmly refused to disclose the name of the eyewitness, only stating that "a young and talented poet Bryce Sandras was present at the time." Did Sandras really make up the whole story of Walt Whitman's death and funeral from beginning to end? Yes, indeed he made it all up, because no one ever saw the poet at the bedside of the poet he said. Apollinaire has always admired Sandras very much, and he has never concealed this from Sandras.Although there are sometimes gaps in their relationship that no one can explain clearly, it is actually suspicion caused by jealousy. Sandras also admires Apollinaire very much. Sandras writes in "The Hammock": Apollinaire, 1900-1911 The only French poet in twelve years, Why only twelve years?Because Sandras only came to France in 1912... After the war, the dark clouds that once hung over the two of them were quickly dispelled. In 1918, the Siren Publishing House, where Bryce Sandras was the director of the literature room, published Apollinaire's "The Idlers on the Banks of the Seine".In his later letters, Bryce resumed using the most sincere and sincere terms familiar to Guillaume's friends before signing to Apollinaire: with my friendly hands... On August 3, 1914, the day after Germany declared war on France, Bryce Sandras enlisted in the army.A month later, he got married.A few days later, he became a full member of the first regiment of the Paris Foreign Legion. He spent a year in the army fighting to defend the country that had taken him.At first, like Apollinaire and Cocteau, Sandras discovered a new world that fascinated poets.But this did not last long, for he would not give up his anarchism, and in military life he persisted in his free-spirited, defiant, cynically critical attitude to everything.In his writing, everything is worthy of his fuss and comments: When the troops passed through Chantilly, Joffre (1852-1931), French Marshal.There was bending over the map of the General Staff to study with his men; the Generalissimo was not pleased that the footsteps of soldiers of the infantry regiment passing through the street with rhythmic steps disturbed him; in order not to interfere with the French military At the military strategy meeting of the chiefs, Joffre ordered the streets of the city to be covered with straw... When his regiment began to return to the North Sea, he ridiculed the commanding abilities of the commanders even more vigorously, and uttered wild words: At that time, we should move quickly to cut off the enemy's passage; in order to adapt to more difficult battles, it is best to rest the troops on the spot ;Officers have their own command art; military command art and non-military art have never been the same thing, this time, these trains are supposed to transport soldiers, but now let the trains accompany soldiers to the front line, it is really unreasonable!The soldiers staggered exhaustedly along the railway line with their luggage on their backs, while the black charcoal eyes of the empty locomotive after a good rest peeped at the soldiers who were struggling hard. What a great art of commanding! But Bryce Sandras could endure it all: insults, drudgery, going to the front, fighting the enemy face to face.He can stand up to any situation, because he has always by his side a vain little fellow who will soon make him a big man: Moravadina.This was one of his best and most faithful comrades in the war, as the others died in droves. On September 28, 1915, in the Champagne department, a bomb hit the writer's hand, and Bryce Sandras lost his right arm. In May, at the Battle of Carancy, Braque was wounded in the head and Kisling was bayoneted.Their injuries were a blessing in disguise for both of them.In addition to endless verbal consolation, they were both awarded the Palme d'Or for the war.It is especially gratifying that a special prize is promised to be awarded to Kisling, Sandras, and all foreign artists who have fought in the trenches: French citizenship.