Original woodcut from the famous book Le Bestiaire, ou Cortège d'Orphée, a collaboration between poet Guillaume Apollinaire and artist Raoul Dufy, 1911. Apollinaire uses the crayfish's natural habit of swimming backward as a metaphor for uncertainty and a "retrograde" movement in life or love. This specific poem, along with others from the Bestiary, was famously set to music by the composer Francis Poulenc in 1919. In excellent condition. Dimensions: 9.5" x 13"
Translation of Poem:
Uncertainty, O my delights You and I, off we go Just like the crayfish, Backwards, backwards
