[Louis ARAGON].

PÉTRARQUE. Five sonnets with an etching by Picasso and the translator's explanations. À la Fontaine de Vaucluse, [Paris, imprimerie J. Dumoulin et Atelier Lacourière pour la gravure], 1947. Small folio, paperback, cover printed in red and black, filled. Original edition of Louis Aragon's anonymous translation: printed at his expense, it is illustrated with an original full-page etching by Picasso. Unique edition of 110 copies: number 39, that of Valentine Hugo. The printed justification states: "It is for his friends, at the expense of the translator, who numbered and marked them with his hand, each bearing a different handwritten proverb as a signature, that one hundred and ten copies of this edition have been printed [...]. Aragon's autograph proverb for this number 39 is: "There is fire without smoke, and love without pretence. Then, the translator noted below: "To this copy has been added a sonnet - not by Petrarch but by the scribe - on five sheets of chamois paper in characters of his own hand traced in indelible Japanese pencil, after the Delbée copy of 'Petrarch', in honour of Valentine Hugo, for whom this copy was made in 1962 in mid-June, and I pray its future owners never to separate these flying verses, here as butterflies pricked with a murderous hand. A.” In fact, a Sonnet du sommeil de Madame Laure de Noves et des grands yeux ouverts de celle que je ne dis pas is enclosed: autograph manuscript in two colours, red and black, on five sheets of chamois paper. In addition, Aragon signed in red ink the preface containing the Explanations of the translator. Aragon's free translation of Pétrarque's love poems to Laure is secretly dedicated to Elsa Triolet. It bears in mind: "They said Laura was somebody ELSE." The supposed portrait of Laure by Picasso borrows the features of Françoise Gilot who had just entered the life of the painter. (Goeppert & Cramer, Pablo Picasso, catalogue raisonné des l