The Dunce

 He says no with his head

 but he says yes with his heart

 he says yes to what he loves

 he says no to the teacher

 he stands

 he is questioned

 and all the problems are posed

 sudden mad laughter seizes him

 and he erases all

 the words and figures

 names and dates

 sentences and snares

 and despite the teacher’s threats

 to the jeers of infant prodigies

 with chalk of every color

 on the blackboard of misfortune

 he draws the face of happiness. 

 --Jacques Prevert

 translated from the French by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

 From an English language selection from Prevert’s collection titled Paroles (which means both words and passwords), published by City Lights Books. Jacques Prevert was born in France in 1900, and lived in Paris. His poems on the Spanish civil war attracted popular notice in the 1930s,when he was part of a political theatre troupe. For awhile he was part of the Surrealist movement but was ejected for being too anarchic.  His verses were passed hand to hand during the German Occupation of World War II, even before the publication of his first collection, Paroles, in 1946, which caused a national sensation.  His verses set to music also became highly popular in France.

A tribute to Prevert by the blog The Blue Lantern comments: "Abstraction, in words or images, meant little to Prevert who believed that 'everything starts from something.'  According to Prevert, if you paint a bird and the painting doesn't sing, 'It's a bad sign."

Prevert's parallel career as a screenwriter also began in the 30s and continued to the time of his death in 1977.  He remains an esteemed and popular poet in France, and is widely translated.

Top Photo: Jean-Pierre Leaud in Truffaut's The 400 Blows.