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Sleeping fit by Rrose Selavy of 18 October 1922

First hypnotic sleeping fits

Manuscript

Author

Author Robert Desnos
Person cited Dieulafoy
Notes by André Breton
Other Marcel Duchamp

Description

Sleeping fit session of 18 October 1922; from New York, Marcel Duchamp-Rrose Sélavy dictates a few phrases to Robert Desnos that would feature again in Corps et biens.

In this session from 18 October, Duchamp-Rrose Sélavy dictates a few phrases to Robert Desnos from New York that would feature again in Corps et biens. We have here a document of particular interest since it offers two states of the text: first as a raw first outburst, then a reworked version that is nearly the same but nevertheless organised differently. A few pearls stand out: ‘Rrose Sélavy announces that the honey of his brain is the marvel that sours the gall of this sky’ (‘Rrose Sélavy proclame que le miel de sa cervelle est la merveille qui aigrit le fiel de ce ciel’), before inventing the ‘pope’s pâté’, to be eaten, of course, accompanied by an ‘agate-coloured sauce’. 

First hypnotic sleeping fits.
18 October 1922.
- 4 small in-4° pages of word games, with two of the pages written in black pencil by Breton; three of these pages are dated in blue ink ‘18.10. (1922)’ and one bears Desnos’ signature. The set is inserted in the subscription sheet for the newspaper Le Soir dated 18 October.
‘Possessed of an untrammelled love, the Savoy priest casts his frock on the rocks to soothe his loins.

An epiphany. In the drab night dreams accost the harbour to unload broad beans.

Launch the rockets the races with crafty faces are worn out.’

(‘Possédé d'un amour sans frein, le prêtre savoyard jette aux rocs son froc pour soulager ses reins.
Épiphanie. Dans la nuit fade des rêves accostent la rade pour décharger des fèves.
Lancez les fusées les races à faces rusées sont usées.’)