He poured the coffee
 Into the cup
 He poured the milk
 Into the cup of coffee
 He added the sugar
 To the coffee and milk
 He stirred it
 With a teaspoon
 He drank the coffee
 And put back the cup
  Without speaking to me
 He lit a cigarette
 He blew some rings
 With the smoke
 He flicked the ashes
 Into the ashtray
  Without speaking to me
  Without looking at me
 He got up
 He put his hat
 On his head
 He put on
 His raincoat
 Because it was raining
 He went out
 Into the rain
  Without a word
  Without looking at me
 And I
  I took my head
  In my hands
  And I wept

(translated by Alastair Campbell)

Jacques Prévert is one of France’s most well-known poets, and I was surprised to see him so well represented on minstrels ;)

The thing I love about him is his remarkable obervation of and sympathy for people and everyday life. He evokes deep emotions with suprising simplicity and grace. The poem “Breakfast” published in Paroles, Prévert’s first collection of poetry which appeared late in 1945, is typical of his lucid and poignant style.

— Firdaus

Martin adds

As an aside, I’d like to thank reader Ian Barnett (of the Parole Translations and Literary Agency) for drumming into me the importance of finding out about and acknowledging the translators of non-English poems we run. I don’t always succeed, I’ll admit, but I do always make the effort. Quoting Ian’s spot-on rant about this all-too-common omission:

This lacuna annexes foreign poets to the English language in a most unwholesome, if reflexive, nay, automatic way. It does the invisible profession of the literary translator no favours either. And strictly it is illegal not to acknowledge provenance – a law which, for the authorship of the translator, is also strangely invisible.

— Martin

Links

Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pr%C3%A9vert

A collection of Prévert’s poems, translated by Campbell:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/DeepSouth/vol3no1/campbell.html