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I deem it capable of
indefinitely sustaining the old human fanaticism. It doubtless satisfies my only legitimate
aspiration. Among all the many misfortunes to which we are heir, it is only fair to admit that
we are allowed the greatest degree of freedom of thought. It is up to us not to misuse it. To
reduce the imagination to a state of slavery - even though it would mean the elimination of
what is commonly called happiness - is to betray all sense of absolute justice within oneself.
Imagination alone offers me some intimation of what can be, and this is enough to remove to
some slight degree the terrible injunction; enough, too, to allow me to devote myself to it
without fear of making a mistake (as though it were possible to make a bigger mistake).
Where does it begin to turn bad, and where does the mind's stability cease? For the mind, is
the possibility of erring not rather the contingency of good? 4-5.
We are still living under the reign of logic: this, of course, is what I have been driving at. But
in this day and age logical methods are applicable only to solving problems of secondary
interest. The absolute rationalism that is still in vogue allows ns to consider only facts relating
directly to our experience. Logical ends, on the contrary, escape us.. 9-10.
Még mindig a logika uralma alatt élünk, igen, ide kívántam kilyukadni. Manapság azonban a
logikai műveleteket csupán a másodrendű fontosságú problémák megoldására vetik be. A
továbbra is dívó abszolút racionalizmus cask a szorosan a tapasztalatunktól függő tények
figyelembevételét engedi meg. Ezzel szemben a logikai célok már kisiklanak a hatásköréből.
Felesleges hozzátenni, hogy még maga a tapasztalat is korlátok közé szorul. (157.)
SURREALISM, n. Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express-
verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other manner-the actual functioning of
thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from
any aesthetic or moral concern.
26.
Válaszként erre:
„L’automatisme, pictural ou poétique, est le principe essentiel du surréalisme par le fait qu’il
est en prise directe, comme on dit en électricité, avec les rives où nous espérons aborder.
C’est une aberration colossale que de le ramener au niveau des procédés qui ont pu sous-
tendre le surréalisme à telle ou telle étape de sa trajectoire historique. On ne classe pas
l’automatisme entre le collage et la paranoïa-critique. Ceux-ci sont périssables et subissent le
processus de rationalisation […] L’automatisme non, qui n’est pas la traversée du miroir mais
déjà l’autre côté.” (Une démolition au platane, Medium: communication surréaliste, 4, 1955,
61.)
After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as possible to the concentration of your
mind upon itself, have writing materials brought to you. Put yourself in as passive, or
receptive, a state of mind as you can. Forget about your genius, your talents, and the talents of
everyone else. Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that leads to
everything. Write quickly, without any preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not
remember what you're writing and be tempted to reread what you have written. The first
sentence will come spontaneously, so compelling is the truth that with every passing second
there is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only crying out to be heard. It is
somewhat of a problem to form an opinion about the next sentence; it doubtless partakes both
of our conscious activity and of the other, if one agrees that the fact of having written the first
entails a minimum of perception. This should be of no importance to you, however; to a large
extent, this is what is most interesting and intriguing about the Surrealist game. The fact still
remains that punctuation no doubt resists the absolute continuity of the flow with which we
are concerned, although it may seem as necessary as the arrangement of knots in a vibrating
cord. Go on as long as you like. 29-30.
Surrealism, such as I conceive of it, asserts our complete nonconformism clearly enough so
that there can be no question of translating it, at the trial of the real world, as evidence for the
defense. It could, on the contrary, only serve to justify the complete state of distraction which
we hope to achieve here below. 47.
Magyar fordítása: A szürrealizmus, már amint én tekintem, eléggé hangsúlyozza a mi teljes
tagadásunkat, semhogy a való világ perében meg lehetne idézni mentőtanúnak. Ellenkezőleg,
cask azt tanúsíthatná, hogy mi minden igyekezetünkkel el akarunk jutni e földön a teljes
szórakozottság állapotához. E tekintetben mélységesen jellemző a nővel kapcsolatos
szórakozottság Kantnál, a „szőlővel” kapcsolatos Pasteurnél, a járművekkel kapcsolatos
Curie-nél. Ez a világ csak nagyon viszonylagosan veszi fel a versenyt a gondolattal, és az
efféle incidensek esetei annak a szabadságharcnak, amelynek büszke bajnoka vagyok. A
szürrealizmus az a „halálsugár”, amelynek hála egyszer majd diadalmaskodunk
ellenfeleinken. „Többé már nem reszketsz, te csontváz! Ezen a nyáron kék a rózsa, az erdő
pedig üvegből van. A zöld mezben pompázó föld éppúgy nem izgat, mint egy kísértet. Élni
vagy halni? Ugyan, ez csak látszatmegoldás! Az élet értelmét másutt keresd.” A szürrealista
varázsművészet titkai. Bajom Lázár Endre fordítása. In Bajomi Lázár Endre (vál.): A
szürrealizmus. Gondolat, Budapest, 1968, 179–198; 197–198.
Second manifesto
1) Do you believe that literary and artistic output is a purely individual phenomenon?
Don't you think that it can or must be the reflection of the main currents which determine the
economic and social evolution of humanity?
2) Do you believe in a literature and an art which express the
aspirations of the working class? Who, in your opinion, are the
principal representatives of this literature
I have recently been accused of seeking to establish a sort of united front of poetry and art;
people have written that automatism, such as it has been practiced by Surrealism, could be
considered to be nothing but a tic, nothing but a superannuated bias of a literary school that was
wrongly considered to be a means of knowledge. If what I am accused of is the will to dig out
and defend whatever there may be that is common and inalienable in the aspirations of those
whose role it is today to sharpen human sensibilities again, beyond all the differences that
separate them, most of which I consider to be reducible in the near future, yes, I am for the
constitution of this united front of poetry and art. As regards the conception that each of them
has of his own role, I see no fundamental antagonism between, for example, Pierre-Jean Jouve,
who believes that "in its experience today, poetry is in the presence of multiple condensations
through which it manages to touch the symbol-no longer controlled by the intellect but rather
rising from the depths, redoubtable and real," Tristan Tzara, according to whom "the notions of
identity and of imitation, whose senseless use in the interpretation of the work of art constitutes
the principal argument of those who would like to assign it the role of a tool for propaganda,
are now replaced by those having specifically to do with a process of symbolization," and Andre
Malraux, declaring that "the work of the Western artist consists of creating a personal myth
through a series of symbols." If I discover no essential obstacle to the formation of this "united
front," it is because it seems obvious to me that the elucidation of the means proper to today's
art that is worthy of this name and the very elaboration of the personal myth that has just been
mentioned can in the end result only in the denunciation of the conditions in which this art and
this myth are called upon to develop themselves, and in the unconditional defense of a single
cause, that of the emancipation of man. This has obviously been the case with Surrealism,
whose systematic action resulted in the creating, among young intellectuals, of a current that
clearly opposed inertia in politics and the need for escape from the real that was almost the one
distinguishing characteristic of the whole postwar psychosis. 230-231.