Pour le Noël des enfants dans les ruines

On 19 December 1922, at the Théâtre des Variétés, Sacha Guitry organized a gala entitled “Noël dans les ruines,” intended to provide toys for children in regions devastated by the war. He recited a charming occasional poem for the event, partly quoted and reproduced in Lorcey’s Guitry de A à Z.

“Dieu sait si le plaisir de recevoir est doux…
Mais à mon humble avis
Je crois qu’on ne peut atteindre un certain âge
Sans tout à coup
S’apercevoir que dans la vie
Le Plaisir de donner l’est encor davantage !…”

This text has never been published in book form; it appeared only in the periodical Comedia at the time and was never issued separately, “like a good many of Sacha Guitry’s poems which remain unpublished in book form (…) and whose manuscripts are held at the Bibliothèque Nationale” (Jacques Lorcey). With the exception, among others, of this one.

From the André Bernard library, with bookplate.