This morning, we learned that from now on
divorce is forbidden. Also suppressed
are the Écoles Normales as well as
petits suisses, coeurs, double-crème.
We shall no longer be sold fresh bread,
and coffee grains will be mixed with acorns!
For we enjoyed ourselves too much under
the Third Republic, Pétain has said so;
and pleasure degrades. Can’t we return
to the land and to handicrafts
without singing: Prends Ton Fusil, Grégoire?
Benoîte Groult’s diary, 21 September 1940, from Paris under Nazi occupation.
Verbatim Poetry 