The Flaneur of Paris

'One day in 1907 I was rounding the corner from Boulevard des Italiens to rue Gramont when a fluttering white piece of paper caught my eye. I grabbed it on the fly, by instinct, as if it were a theatre bill. At that moment, raising my eyes to the fourth floor of the nearest building, I saw a masked figure duck back and cry: "Hold on to that paper, Sir! I'll be right down for it."'

Le flaneur des deux rives was published in the year of Apollinaire's death. More than a century later, the poet's ode to Paris is rendered in English for the first time.

Alex Andriesse is a poet and has translated, notably, Chateaubriand’s Memoirs from Beyond the Grave (NYRB Classics).