Selected Poems 1930-1988 by Samuel Beckett

1976).
    â€˜mirlitonnades’. Poèmes, suivi de mirlitonnades (Minuit, 1978). The make-up of the sequence varies from edition to edition of Beckett’s poetry; this printing follows the original text. After this publication Beckett continued to write new poems in French and English in the sottisier notebook. Manuscripts in Trinity College, Dublin describe poems written in the late 1980s as ‘ mirlitonnades ’, making a case for all his short late poems to be seen as implicit additions to the sequence. A mirliton is a kazoo, and mirlitonnades doggerel verse in which to wrap the instrument. The Mare-Chaudron and rue de Courtablon are places in Ussy, whither Beckett retreated from Paris and did much of his writing in later life. The dark sister of ‘ noire sœur ’ is Atropos (cf. note to ‘ être là sans mâchoires sans dents ’). The hare of ‘ à bout de songes un bouquin ’ derives from La Fontaine’s ‘ Le Lièvre et les grenouilles ’.
    â€˜one dead of night’. Composed June 1977; first published Poetry Review 86:3 1996.
    â€˜there’, ‘again gone’. Composed 1981; first published (together with a third, ‘head on hands’) under the single title ‘pss’ in New Departures 14 (1982), but recourse to the sottisier notebook clarifies that they are separate poems. ‘there’ answers Petruchio’s question in The Taming of the Shrew : ‘Where is the life that late I led?’
    â€˜bail bail till better/founder’. Composed 11 April 1981 (UoR sottisier notebook).
    â€˜Là’. Composed 19 January 1987; first published Journal of Beckett Studies [ JOBS ] 1.1 and 2 1992, where it carried a dedication ‘For Jim’ (James Knowlson).
    â€˜Go where never before’. Composed 24 January 1987; English version of ‘Là’, first published together in JOBS 1.1 and 2 1992.
    â€˜Brief Dream’. Composed November 1987; first published JOBS 1.1 and 2 1992.
    Comment dire /what is the word. French text dated 29 October 1988, English text 23 April 1989. Composed 1988; first published Libération 1 June 1989 (‘ Comment dire ’) and Sunday Correspondent 31 December 1989 (‘what is the word’). ‘what is the word’ was Beckett’s last piece of writing.
Translations
    â€˜Delta’. This Quarter 2.4 April–May–June 1930. Eugenio Montale (1896–1981), Italian poet, Nobel Prize for Literature 1975.
    â€˜Louis Armstrong’. From Nancy Cunard’s Negro, An Anthology (1934). Ernst Moerman (1897–1944), Belgian author and film director.
    â€˜Drunken Boat’. Whiteknights Press (Reading, 1976). Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891), French poet. Beckett offered the translation to This Quarter in 1932, but the journal ceased publication shortly afterwards. The text was believed lost for decades before resurfacing in 1975; it was first published in a limited edition the following year.
    â€˜Lady Love’, ‘Out of Sight in the Direction of My Body’. First published in Thorns of Thunder: Selected Poems of Paul Éluard (London, 1936). Paul Éluard (1895–1952), French surrealist poet.
    â€˜Zone’. Transition Fifty 6 (October 1950), reprinted by Dolmen Press (1972). Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), Polish-born French surrealist poet.
    â€˜Long after Chamfort’. First published The Blue Guitar December 1975 (maxims 1–6), Hermathena CXV 1973 (number 6), and Collected Poems (numbers 7 and 8). Nicolas-Sébastien Chamfort (1741–1794), mordant French aphorist. The last of the eight maxims derives not from Chamfort but from Pascal.
    â€˜Tailpiece’. From Watt , and placed last in all previous editions of Beckett’s poetry.

Titles in the Samuel Beckett series
    ENDGAME
    Preface by Rónán McDonald
    COMPANY/ILL SEEN ILL SAID/WORSTWARD HO/STIRRINGS STILL
    Edited by Dirk Van Hulle
    KRAPP’S LAST