[Un poème de Raymond Queneau (1903-1976)]

Un jour on démolira
ces beaux immeubles si modernes
on en cassera les carreaux
de plexiglas ou d'ultravitre
on démontera les fourneaux
construits à polytechnique
on sectionnera les antennes
collectives de télévision
on dévissera les ascenseurs
on anéantira les vide-ordures
on broiera les chauffoses
on pulvérisera les frigidons
quand ces immeubles vieilliront
du poids infini de la tristesse des choses



[interpretation in English]


Someday, they will be destroyed
these beautiful oh so modern buildings
their windows shattered
acrylic or tempered glass
their furnaces built at l'X dismantled
their communal aerials chopped up
their lifts unscrewed
their trash-chutes annihilated
their boilthings ground up
their freezigeons reduced to dust
when these buildings have grown old
under the infinite weight of the sadness of things