In this final selection from the 1991 recording, David Gascoyne reads his own translation of the poem 'H' by Oscar Vladislas de Lubicz Milosz (1877-1939). The text is included in the Enitharmon publication of David Gascoyne's Selected Verse Translations (1996), but was first published as an Enitharmon Poetry Pamphlet in 1993.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

H - by Milosz, translated and read by David Gascoyne

In this penultimate poem from the 1991 recording, David Gascoyne reads his translation of Canto XXVIII of Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837). The translation is included in Gascoyne's 'Selected Verse Translations' which was published by Enitharmon in 1996, but was first published in 1985 as a special limited edition by the Tragara Press for Enitharmon in November 1985.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

A Se Stesso: To Himself - by Leopardi, translated and read by David Gascoyne

On the spur of the moment, David decided to read this "very tiny" poem, one of his light verses.
It was first published in the periodical Points No.8 (Paris, December 1950/January 1951), and later as the third of Three Cabaret Poems in Collected Poems and Selected Poems.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

Sizzling Seclusion: Rumba, written and read by David Gascoyne

David introduces and reads his humorous poem Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe, "inspired more by mischief than by Manet", which was part of his 1950 collection, A Vagrant and Other Poems.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

Le Déjeuner sur L'Herbe: a pastoral, written and read by David Gascoyne

Here David introduces and reads his narrative light verse poem 'An Unsagacious Animal or The Triumph of Art Over Nature' - first published in Horizon, January 1949. The poem was first collected in A Vagrant and Other Poems (1950) and is also included in all later collections.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

An Unsagacious Animal, written and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne wrote this poem on learning of the death of Paul Éluard in 1952. In his introduction to his Collected Poems 1988 (OUP), reproduced as the introduction to his Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994), he has this to say about Éluard, a poet he first met as part of his involvement with the Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1930s:

"I had met him again only once since the [1939-1945] War, during which his fame and popularity had increased enormously. So had his commitment to the PCF [French Communist Party] and Stalinism, largley, it seemed to me, as a result of his third marriage. The 'Elegiac Improvisation' I wrote after his death was an expression of the admiration of him I had first felt when not yet twenty. Passages of the poem use brief lines imitative of his [final collection] Poésie ininterrompue' [1946-1953]; others introduce imagery derived from the kind of French painting he loved and interpreted so well. It refers to him as the great poet of the Resistance that he was commonly supposed to be. It was not until quite recently, on reading Milan Kundera's 'Book of Laughter and Forgetting', which contains a bitterly ironic account of Éluard's inexcusable failure to speak out in defence of his one-time friend the surrealist Zavis Kalandra, who was hanged in Prague in 1950 during the French poet's visit to the city at the invitation of the Czech authorities, that I fully realized what kind of man he had become at the end of his life. If I had been fully aware of this incident at the time, and fully understood the way authoritarian politics can transform even so fraternal a poet as Éluard, it would not have been possible (or, at least, I hope not) for me to write the kind of poem that the 'Elegiac Improvisation' turned out to be. The poem was intended for recital and I first read it at the Institute for Contemporary Art, then still located in Mayfair [London]; it was later published in the review 'Botteghe Oscure'."

The poem was published in Botteghe Oscure in 1954. It has since been reprinted in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP), and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

Elegiac Improvisation on the Death of Paul Éluard, written and read by David Gascoyne

Written in spring 1941, this poem was first collected in Poems 1937-1942.

Recorded by James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight.

The Gravel-Pit Field, written and read by David Gascoyne

This poem was first published in the periodical Botteghe Oscure in 1949 under the title 'The Unfulfilled'. It was retitled 'Evening Again' as part of the collection 'A Vagrant and Other Poems' (John Lehmann, London, 1950). It is included in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994). David gives a second reading in the second afternoon, recorded in 1991.

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

Evening Again, written and read by David Gascoyne

Night Thoughts was a BBC commission  - a long 'radiophonic poem' for several voices, with orchestral and electronic music by Hmphrey Searle, the only English pupil of Webern. It was first broadcast in December 1955, and the text was published the following year by André Deutsch. The full text was re-published by Alyscamps Press with an introduction by Simon Callow and preface by Kathleen Raine in 1995. It is also reprinted in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994). Here, David reads an excerpt from the opening of the second of three movements.

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

Night Thoughts - Megalometropolitan Carnival (excerpt) written and read by David Gascoyne

First publsihed in Poems 1937-1942 (Editions: Poetry, London, 1943), this poem is also included in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

Cavatina, written and read by David Gacoyne

Mozart - Sursum Corda, written and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne reads the third of three poems selected from the sequence he called "The Symptomatic World". These come from the short 'Surrealist' period 1933-1936 in which he made fairly strict use of the automatic writing - something he abandoned later due to its limitations. 'The Symptomatic World' was first collected in Early Poems, published in limited edition form by the Greville Press in 1980. They are can also be found in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

The Symptomatic World VIII, written and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne reads the second of three poems selected from the sequence he called "The Symptomatic World". These come from the short 'Surrealist' period 1933-1936 in which he made fairly strict use of the automatic writing - something he abandoned later due to its limitations. 'The Symptomatic World' was first collected in Early Poems, published in limited edition form by the Greville Press in 1980. They are can also be found in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

The Symptomatic World VII, written and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne reads the first of three poems selected from the sequence he called "The Symptomatic World". These come from the short 'Surrealist' period 1933-1936 in which he made fairly strict use of the automatic writing - something he abandoned later due to its limitations. 'The Symptomatic World' was first collected in Early Poems, published in limited edition form by the Greville Press in 1980. They are can also be found in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

The Symptomatic World III, written and read by David Gascoyne

Benjamin Péret (1899-1959) was one of the most committed of the original surrealists, and made extensive use of automatic writing in his often hilarious and disconcerting poetry. David Gascoyne made many translations of Péret's poems, and a volume was of these (with others by Humphrey Jennings) was published as A Bunch of Carrots, then as Remove Your Hat in 1936. The collection was reiussed by Atlas Press in 1986, but is now, sadly, out of print. The translation can now be found in David Gascoyne's 'Selected Verse Translations' (Enitharmon, 1996). The image, left, is of Benjamin Péret.

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

At the End of the World by Benjamin Péret, translated and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne introduces his translation of Paul Éluard's poem about the pioneer of Cubist art, Georges Braque (1882-1963). Éluard (1895-1952) was one of the finest of the original surrealist poets, and was much admired by Gascoyne. Gascoyne wrote his own tribute to Éluard, which he can be heard reading in the second set of poems in this collection. The picture shows Paul Éluard.

Gascoyne's translation of the poem was first published as part of Éluard's 'Thorns of Thunder' (along with contributions from Picasso, Samuel Beckett, Man Ray and others) in 1936. It later reprinted in Gascoyne's 'Collected Verse Translations' (OUP, 1970) and 'Selected Verse Translations' (Enitharmon, 1996).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

Georges Braque by Paul Éluard, translated and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne introduces the first of three translations of poems by fellow members of the Surrealist movement. The picture shows the author of this one, René Char. The text can be found in David's 'Selected Verse Translations' (Enitharmon, 1996). The translation was first published in the June 1936 edition of Contemporary Poetry and Prose.

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

The Raving Messengers of Frantic Poetry by René Char, translated and read by David Gascoyne

Another early poem from the 1930s, 'Signs' was first published as one of Six Poems in the periodical called Delta in April 1938. It is also included in Collected Poems 1988 (OUP), and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

Signs, written and read by David Gascoyne

This early poem was first published in 'The Sunday Referee' on 24th September 1933. It was chosen for publication by the editor of the 'Poet's Corner' column, Victor Neuberg (who was once, it was claimed, turned into a camel by black magician Aleister Crowley). The text can be found in David Gascoyne's Collected Poems 1988 (OUP) and Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1994).

Recorded by Paul D. Condon and James Nye at the poet's house in Northwood on the Isle of Wight in May, 1988.

On the Terrace, written and read by David Gascoyne

David Gascoyne (1916-2001) 
These recordings of the poet reading his poems and translations were made in 1988 and 1991 at the poet's home in Northwood on the Isle of Wight. The first set of recordings was made by James Nye and Paul Condon, the second by James Nye alone. 

The sound quality is not perfect due to the equipment available at the time, and occasionally you can hear traffic noise as cars pass David's home - but we present them here as a tribute to David Gascoyne, and for their historical interest. 

For more information about David Gascoyne: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gascoyne

For a detailed account, please consult "Night Thoughts: The Surreal Life of the Poet David Gascoyne " by Robert Fraser (OUP, 2012).

David Gascoyne

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