A POEM BY GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE

family of saltimbanques by pablo picasso

           SALTIMBANQUES
                   to Louis Dumur


          Across the plain the troop of clowns

          Moves by along the garden walls

          Before the doors of greying inns

          Through churchless villages and towns


          And children scamper out in front

          While others follow dreamily

          Each fruit tree submits readily

         When from afar they give the sign


          The weights they bear are round and square

          And tambourines and guilded hoops

          Wise animals the ape and bear

          Beg for their keep along the way.


                           ---Guillaume Apollinaire

                                     tr: Roger Shattuck


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