The Gas Heart Paperback – February 1, 2008

Fun literary stunt: I read Tristan Tzara’s Dadaist play ‘The Gas Heart’ play on the 100th anniversary - to the day - of its opening performance (I’m easily amused). ‘The Gas Heart’ comprises three acts of nonsensical dialogue, essentially flipping the bird to traditional theatre. Since Dada is not just an absurdist but also an intentionally disruptive movement, the actors performed their roles in a manner designed to irritate and offend the audience. It’s a fun read, especially if you do so out loud and attempt to deliver it in the intended manner. The cast for the opening performance included Tzara himself as well as avant-garde figureheads Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. Costumes were designed by the soon-to-be revered artist Sonia Delauney. The audience booed during the performance, and many walked out in disgust. At the second performance, soon-to-be Surrealist leader Andre Breton became enraged. He stormed the stage, shouted at the actors, and broke one of their arms with his walking stick. A riot ensued. This event was cited by some as the end of Dada as a coherent movement. Even so, Dada continued to greatly influence the direction of art, literature, poetry, music, cinema, and how we all think about it today.

This translation is a vast improvement over Benedikt's, the only other English version. It is a more accurate rendering of the original French and reflects more authentically the true Dada spirit. I suspect Tzara would have approved of this simple edition which, like Dada, is without pretension. The binding is sturdier and more handsome than most of the scripts that sell for three times as much in shops on Broadway. The translator's lively introduction alone is worth the price of the book. Tzara cryptically defined Dada as a "state of mind" which "transforms itself according to races and events"..."a virgin microbe that penetrates with the insistence of air into all the spaces that reason has not been able to fill with words or conventions." He countered inquiries regarding the explanation of Dada with, "You explain to me why you exist. You haven't the faintest idea." Luft sees Dada as essentially political and makes sense of this crazy movement as no one else can. If he had lived 100 years earlier he probably would have been a major Dadaist himself.

I was certainly pleased to get 'any' quantity of works by Tristan Tzara translated into English, but I wonder if it was the decision of Lee Harwood, or of Black Widow Press to limit this volume to "Selected Poems" rather than offering one or more volumes of "Collected Poems," or "Complete Poems" instead.Are the poems (especially the fragments from longer poems)in this edition ALL that Lee Harwood has translated over the years, or did he translate more than is offered here? I suspect that this has something to do with the publisher's estimation on the best size, price and marketability of this body of works, but I would have them know that I would gladly have paid a much higher price for a more extensive collection of Tristan Tzara's writings.

Great! Just what I was looking for.

I hate the way this is printed. I hate Luft's commentary. It's hard to tell if this is a good translation when all the other choices are so distasteful.