Monsieur Gilquin & Oriental Poetry

The town is on the side of a mountain, one can see only the minarets.
Charabanks descend; they are conducted to the minarets by galloping
horses, and there is the cart of the carpenters, complete with turrets.
Helping the cat save itself, Madame Gilquin discovered the key to the
temple. The nurses made thousands of children piss in the lake &’re
looking in windows at art objects. One thing which interests me is the
album of the story of Monsieur & Madame Gilquin, written in Chinese ink.
Why is Monsieur Gilquin naked? He has pissed in his good hat like the children
in the lake. Frankly, I’m never going near that town.








Poem by Max Jacob, translated by Alastair Johnston

Alastair Johnston is a printer and author living in Berkeley, California. He is trying to realize Oliver Cromwell’s dictum: a man never rises so high as when he doesn’t know where he is going. www.poltroonpress.com