Handwritten poem, 1942. Calder Foundation, New York. First English translation in Calder, exh. cat. (New York: Buchholz Gallery/Curt Valentin, 1949); revised translation in Calder in Connecticut, ed. Eric M. Zafran, exh. cat. (New York: Rizzoli, 2000).
Arrivé d’Europe, comme ils disent …
Il est vrai que la-bas fer et cuivre ne sont qu’œuvre noire
la mort ajoutée à la mort et la vie calomniée.
Moi je fûs, heureux fugitif,
Couché à l’œuvre d’un vivant
Le jour et la nuit s’ouvraient devant
des ailes—algues—feuilles mobiles.
Bonjour forgeron de géantes libellules
Sourcier du mercure ta fontaine montrait
une eau lourde comme les pleurs.
Mais un caroussel de petites lunes écarlates me réjouis
Je pense à un cirque transparant
C’est une feuille traversée par le soleil.
Tu as vu un jour vert un oiseau rouge
à la poursuite d’un oiseau jaune ;
tu sais que nous sommes liés à la nature
que nous appartenons à la terre.
Très haut suspendu à la charpente de l’atelier
dans le jour strié un gong sensible aux caprices de l’air
n’est frappé qu’avec une extrême circonspection
A pas de colombe il sonne : quelle heure sonne-t-il?
C’est l’heure du mille-pattes très affairé
C’est aussi l’heure de l’enfant aux cerises.
Ici les secondes n’ont pas le poids de l’horloge
elles ne sont pas non plus couchées dans un herbier
elles ne conçoivent pas l’immobilité
elles aiment le bruissement des roseaux
et le cri du crapaud d’arbre qui sait si bien respirer en musique
elles jouent entre tes doigts Calder mon ami.
The Studio of Alexander Calder
Newcomer from Europe, as they say,
It is true that back there iron and copper are instruments only of evil
adding death to death and to maligned life.
I fled, a fortunate fugitive,
Lying with the work of one alive
The day and the night unfurled in the presence
of mobile wings—algae—leaves.
Greetings forger of gigantic dragonflies
Diviner of mercury your fountain revealed
A water heavy as tears.
But a carousel of little crimson moons thrills me
It brings to mind a translucent circus
It is a leaf traversed by the sun.
One green day you saw a red bird
in pursuit of a yellow bird;
you know that we are bound to nature
that we belong to the earth.
Hung from the studio’s rafters,
in the streaks of light a gong sensitive to the caprices of air
is struck only with the greatest caution
With the step of a dove it rings: what hour does it sound?
This is the hour of bustling centipedes
It is also the hour of the child with cherries.
Here the seconds lack the weight of the clock
they do not rest in the grass
they cannot conceive of immobility
they love the rustling of reeds
and the cry of the tree frog who breathes music
they play between your fingers, Calder, my friend.
Calder, Alexander. “À Propos of Measuring a Mobile.” Manuscript, 1943. Agnes Rindge Claflin papers concerning Alexander Calder, 1936-circa 1970s. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Unpublished Document or ManuscriptAddison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts. 17 Mobiles by Alexander Calder. Exhibition catalogue. 1943.
Alexander Calder, Statement
Solo Exhibition CatalogueBuffet, Gabrielle. “Sandy Calder, forgeron lunaire.” Cahiers d’Art, nos. 20–21 (1945–46).
MagazineGalerie Louis Carré, Paris. Alexander Calder: Mobiles, Stabiles, Constellations. Exhibition catalogue. 1946.
Jean-Paul Sartre, Les Mobiles de Calder
Solo Exhibition CatalogueIn 1937, Calder completed Devil Fish, his first stabile enlarged from a model. He received two important commissions: Mercury Fountain (1937) and Lobster Trap and Fish Tail (1939). His first retrospective was held in 1938 at the George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery in Springfield, Massachusetts, followed by another in 1943 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
