Soluble Fish Lyric

Soluble Fish, a novelistic demonstration of Surrealist writing, was written in French in 1924 and translated into English by Richard Seaver and Helen Lane in 1969. Their translation is here interpreted in verse by Jabez L. Van Cleef.

Surrealism is an art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I, in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike scenes and ideas. Its intention was, according to leader André Breton, to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality,” or surreality. It produced works of painting, writing, photography, theatre, filmmaking, music, comedy and other media as well.

Works of surrealism feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. However, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost (for instance, of the pure psychic automatism Breton speaks of in the first Surrealist Manifesto), with the works themselves being secondary, i.e., artifacts of surrealist experimentation. Breton was explicit in his assertion that surrealism was, above all, a revolutionary movement intended to result in political and social change. At that time, the movement was associated with political causes such as communism and anarchism.