“Dedication, but not devotion”: A Poem for Danièle Huillet

Jean-Claude Rousseau, 2006

Translated by Ethan Spigland

“Attached, I am pleased to send you the short poem, in the form of a calligram (it draws a vase... an urn), I wrote upon Danièle's death. Of course, you can translate it and publish it.”

Jean-Claude Rousseau, May 2025, via email.

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Dedication, but not

devotion. Resistance.

That of the body, until the end.

Physical resistance.

Resistance of the spirit,

poetry, therefore, which never

ends and which is not a dream,

she said, but reality,

always there, captured in

its sonic and visual traces.

That was the demand of the work.

For the one who had seen

beauty,

she established its presence.

Pardon me for saying so.

How beautiful you are, Danièle!

xx

Jean-Claude Rousseau