author
Tristan Tzara
1896–1963
A restless, provocative voice of the European avant-garde, he helped launch Dada and delighted in turning poetry into surprise, play, and revolt. His work moves from wild experiment to darker, more reflective writing shaped by war and exile.
1 Audiobook
Vingt-cinq poèmes
by Tristan Tzara
About the author
Born Samuel Rosenstock in Moinești, Romania, in 1896, Tristan Tzara became one of the best-known founders of Dada, the radical art movement that emerged in Zurich during World War I. Writing in Romanian and French, he made his name through poems, manifestos, performances, and essays that challenged logic, convention, and polite culture.
After the Zurich years, he moved to Paris, where he remained a central figure in modern literature and the wider avant-garde. He was closely involved with artists and writers across Europe, and his career stretched well beyond Dada: he wrote poetry, plays, criticism, and essays on art, and his later work grew more searching and serious in tone.
Tzara died in Paris in 1963, but his influence has lasted far beyond his own era. He is still remembered as a writer who helped redefine what poetry and art could do—disrupt, provoke, and open new ways of seeing.