Free Mute Objects of Expression by Francis Ponge

from cuma, tender shoot, from χδω: to be swollen by what is engendered (sprout).
    Peignoir: yes, robe put on to comb one’s hair (se peigner).
    Taché. Stained: checked.
    Entaché. Splashed: can be taken in a favorable sense, given that taché can be used as a mark of good qualities.
    Pénombre . Shadow; astronomical term.
    Bois . Wood: 1. that which lies under the bark of a tree; 2. a cluster of trees.
    Forêt . Forest: from foresta , territory forbidden (foreign) to agriculture.
    Futaie: forest of full-grown trees (see below). Futaie is opposed to taillis , brushwood. A term used in Old French: clères futaies .

    Taillis: checked.
    Pin . Pine, nothing special. La pigne , pine-nut, or pistache , pistachio. Pignon . Pine seed.
    Conifère . Conifer: yes, checked: which bears fruit in the form of cones.
    Lisière . Selvage: edge of field or forest; from liste , border.
    Orée . Fringe: skirt of woods (becoming obsolete).
    Expansion: from expandere: a spreading out, outpouring, deployment.
    Vitrage . Glasswork: checked.
    Vitrail . Stained glass, leaded glass window: checked.
    Rideaux . Curtains: checked.
    Chicane . Chicanery: checked.
    Branchie . Gills: no, doesn’t have the same etymology as branches.
    Rectifier . To rectify: checked.
    Conidie . Conidium: fungus, dust covering lichen, from χονις.
    Préau . Yard: completely incorrect, comes from pré , meadow. Would be right for the clearing and not for the woods.
    Thalle . Thallus: checked.
    Orseille . Dyer’s moss: variety of lichen, from the name of the classifier.

    A wood of 40 years is known as futaie sur taillis
    timber over underbrush
“
40-60 years
”
demi-futaie
half-timber
“
60-120 years
”
jeune haute futaie
young high timber
“
120-200 years
”
haute futaie
high timber
“
200 years
”
haute futaie sur le retour
high timber past its prime.
    Â 
    And so, this little opuscule is only (barely) “timber over underbrush.”
    Â 
    END OF THE PINE WOODS FROM THIS POINT ON WE’RE OUT IN THE OPEN COUNTRY

APPENDIX TO “THE PINE WOODS NOTEBOOK”
I. ADDENDA
    The preceding text was written, beginning on August 7, 1940, in a wood near La Suchère, a hamlet in the Haute-Loire where the author, after a month and a half of exodus along the roads of France, had just been reunited with his family. The author remained in La Suchère for almost two months, but in this same pocket notebook which constituted his only stock of paper at the time, nothing was written but the above text and the few notes that follow, entered as addenda on the dates indicated.
    Â 
    August 6, 1940
    â€œWhat I might like to read”: that could be the title, the definition, of what I’ll write.
    Deprived of all reading material for several weeks and months, I’m beginning to feel like reading.

    Well then! It’s what I’d like to read that I’ll have to write (in fact, enough of this . . .).
    But on probing my inner self a bit more attentively, I find it’s not only reading that I’m wanting, but also painting and music (though less). So I must write in a way that will satisfy this amalgam of needs.
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    I’ll have to keep this image constantly in mind: my book, alone (perforce), on a table: that I’d like to open it and read (a few pages only) – and get back to it the following day.
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    August 20, 1940
    What a lot of things I’d have to write about if I were a simple writer . . . and perhaps I should.
    The account of that long month of adventures, from the day I left Rouen till the end of the exodus and my arrival at Le Chambon; today (for instance), relating my conversation with Jacques Babut; of my daily walks and meditations, or of other conversations similar or different; the depiction of people around me, who cross my path and to whom for whatever reason I have lent an ear; my reflections on the political situation in France and the