Jacques Prévert’s To Paint the Portrait of a Bird

First paint a cage
With an open door
Then paint
Something pretty
Something simple
Something beautiful
Something useful
For the bird
Then place the canvas against a tree
In a garden
In a wood
Or in a forest
Hide yourself behind the tree
Without speaking
Without moving…
Sometimes the bird will arrive soon
But it could also easily take many years
For it to decide
Wait
Wait if necessary for years
The rapidity or slowness of the arrival of the bird
Has no connection with the success of the painting
When the bird arrives
If it arrives
Observe the most profound silence
Wait until the bird enters the cage
And when it has entered
Gently close the door with the brush
Then
Erase one by one all of the bars
While being careful not to touch any of the feathers of the bird
Then make a portrait of the tree
Choosing the most beautiful of its branches
For the bird
Paint also the green foliage and the freshness of the wind
The dust of the sun
And the noise of the creatures of the grass in the heat of summer
And then wait for the bird to decide to sing
If the bird does not sing
It’s a bad sign
A sign that the painting is no good
But if it does sing it’s a good sign
A sign that you can sign.
Then you gently pull out
One of the feathers of the bird
And you sign your name in a corner of the painting.

Jacques Prévert’s To Paint the Portrait of a Bird is a free-verse poem in three movements involving, first, the painting of a birdcage, then the wait for a bird, and finally the deliberate erasing of the bars, allowing the bird to stay or fly away. French schoolchildren learn that the poem is about the importance of patience and the wisdom of allowing liberty to those we love.

The beginning of the poem suggests the yearning of everyone to catch the object of his or her desire—and how one might begin: “First paint a cage / with an open door.” The reader is advised to “paint / something pretty / . . . something useful” to make the birdcage as attractive as possible so that “she” (the seduced bird, a metaphor for a lover) will want to stay. Patience, the poet counsels, is often necessary, for “it could also take long years / before she makes up her mind” to come into the painter’s carefully created space.

Once the bird/beloved has entered the relationship, “she” must not feel jailed. The speaker exhorts: “when she is in / with the brush gently close the door / then / erase every single bar one by one / being careful not to touch any of the bird’s feathers.” If love reigns, the bird will stay, and the relationship can be trusted. “If she sings it is a good sign / a sign that you can sign.”

For adults the same poem may well be a metaphor for the artistic process. As the lover must be patient, gentle, and creative, so the artist/poet must await the inspiration of the muse. Art should not be imprisoned in schools or genres, which would be the death of creativity. Instead, erasing the prisons of convention, the artist must cast away the strictures of established forms and expectations, allowing inspiration to arrive, then to soar free.

Bibliography
Prévert, Jacques. Translation of Pour faire le portrait d’un oiseau by Monique Pasternak.

Categories: French Literature, Literature, World Literature

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