Discourse on the Beginnings and Traces of Discourse: The Story of a Legendary Correction. On Paul Eluard's Poem Liberte

Parachuted by the Royal Air Force in April 1943, Paul Eluard's poem Liberte quickly became the symbol of the Resistance to Nazi occupation. Eluard confirmed this sanctification & insisted on the importance of the word & the name "liberte" in the genesis of his poem. Yet, witnesses of how the poem came into being have suggested a different founding myth: the poem may have been written for a beloved woman, Nush, the idea of liberty coming later, in answer to the public's favorable response. We have retraced the mechanisms of the legend across the first rough draft of the poem. Though our conclusions hardly permit us to separate the legend from the poet's initial intention (what Benveniste called the "intended"), nor to isolate the feminine component in the idea of liberty, they do offer us a lesson in humility: the text - even in the traces of its beginnings - fortunately preserves the mystery of creation. 18 References. Adapted from the source document