Arthur Scanu

- France -

Born in Marseille in 1995 and now based in Paris, Arthur Scanu is a bookseller, poet, and cultural events organizer. Since 2016, he has collaborated with numerous poets within the hypermodern poetry association PAN!21, which he co-founded the same year.

In 2021, he published his first collection Je crois que je viens de mourir (Ed. 10 pages au carré) which took us into the flow of thoughts of a young woman confronted with the distressing emptiness of the contemporary world.

With his collection Second souffle, published in 2025 by Bruno Doucey editions, he delivers a very accomplished text on living and loving life.

Born in Marseille in 1995 and now based in Paris, Arthur Scanu is a bookseller, poet, and cultural events organizer. In 2016, he co-founded the hypermodern poetry association PAN!21 to develop multimedia projects. This led to several collaborative works, including C’est beau, c’est où ? (2019), POE(GA)ME (2020), combining poetry and video games, Quelle est votre position ? (2021) and finally Transmission (2021), a poetic science fiction short film. These creations provided an opportunity to work with a number of poets, including François Bétremieux, Maud Joiret, Victor Malzac, Antoine Mouton, and Marie Testu, and to collaborate regularly with composer Antoine Daviaud.

At the same time, he seeks to develop new media for poetry outside of books: for example, the installation Shitpost (2019), composed of fragments of screenshots from social media accounts and a soundtrack to be listened to with headphones, has been installed at several events.

In 2021, he took part in the creation and launch of the publishing house 10 pages au carré, with the publication of his first book, Je crois que je viens de mourir (I think I just died). A hybrid text, somewhere between a poetic and theatrical monologue, it draws us into the stream of consciousness of a young woman confronted with the agonizing emptiness of the contemporary world.

Alongside his poetic work, he also explores contemporary issues related to literature, publishing an article in 2021 entitled Préambule pour une traduction hypermoderne (Preamble to a hypermodern translation) in the journal La main de Thot published by the University of Toulouse - Jean Jaurès, reflecting on the future role of artificial intelligence in the translation industry.

In 2024, he took part in the first Créatine contemporary poetry festival at Ground Control in Paris, transforming an airplane cockpit into an immersive installation. Entitled C’est encore loin ? (Is it still far?), this installation combines audio versions of texts by eight contemporary authors, the projection of a Google Street View stroll, a soundtrack, and a setting for a unique poetic experience.

In 2023, he began writing poems for the collection Second souffle, entirely dedicated to people with respiratory diseases. Initially published by the Respiracteurs association, which distributed several thousand copies free of charge to patients, caregivers, and medical staff, the collection was given a new lease of life in 2025 with a reissue by Éditions Bruno Doucey, expanded with a postscript by the author entitled “Quand dire c’est panser” (When speaking is healing).

More about the poet

Poetry

8 / 8

Parfois
tu restes assis sur ton fauteuil ou sur ton canapé
sans bouger
tu as l’impression d’être à flanc de falaise
d’avoir les deux pieds dans le vide

assis sur ton fauteuil ou sur ton canapé
tu n’es plus là
tes yeux fixent un vertige

tu entends les vagues en bas qui s’écrasent
les bourrasques de vent dans ton dos qui te poussent
le granite qui craquelle en se désagrégeant

mais tu ne tombes pas
quelqu’un vient de s’asseoir juste à côté de toi
et te sourit
Sometimes
you sit in your chair or on your sofa
motionless
you feel like on the edge of a cliff
with both feet dangling in the void

sitting in your chair or on your sofa
you're no longer there
your eyes stare down a vertigo

you hear the waves crashing below
the gusts of wind at your back pushing you
the granite cracking as it crumbles
but you don't fall
someone has just sat down next to you
and smiles at you
11 / 11

My pulmonologist said the results aren't good
I need to lose weight
we're going to change the doses

my psychologist said I need to let go
and learn to love myself

this morning, my scale gained two kilos

my coach keeps encouraging me
but it's not easy

the woman I saw in the ad
said that with just one product
I could look fifteen years younger
that with her brand new slimming program
I could lose up to twenty kilos

my physio said that my back is the most tense
that my neck is the stiffest
and that I need exercise

my psychic predicted that my life would change
in the next six months
thanks to Venus or Mercury

my naturopath said I have too much sleep debt
months
or years of sleep debt

then my nutritionist said I was iron deficient

apparently
I'm the only one left
who doesn't know what to do
Ma pneumologue a dit le bilan n’est pas bon
il faut perdre du poids
on va changer les doses

mon psychologue a dit qu’il faut du lâcher-prise
et qu’il faut que j’apprenne à m’aimer

ce matin ma balance avait pris deux kilos

mon coach continue ses encouragements
mais ce n’est pas gagné

la femme que j’ai vue dans la publicité
a dit qu’avec un seul produit
je pouvais rajeunir de quinze ans
qu’avec son tout nouveau programme amincissant
je pouvais perdre jusqu’à vingt kilos

mon kinésithérapeute a dit que j’ai le dos le plus tendu
que j’ai la nuque la plus raide
et qu’il me faut de l’exercice

ma voyante a prévu que ma vie changerait
dans les six prochains mois
grâce à Vénus ou à Mercure

ma naturopathe a dit que j’ai trop de sommeil en retard
des mois
ou des années de sommeil en retard

puis ma nutritionniste a dit que je manquais de fer

apparemment
il n’y a plus que moi
qui ne sais plus quoi faire
13 / 13

How many times have you waited patiently
for me to fall asleep
so you could cry just a little ?

how many times have you dreamed
of waking up on a Sunday
with nothing changed except my big smile
on my finally healed face
so we could start working our way through
the long list of our dreams ?

how many times did you say nothing ?

how many lives will it take me
to give you back a hundredth
of what you deserve ?

a few million lives perhaps
even though I know full well
that you will repeat for those millions of lives
that I owe you nothing
Combien de fois tu auras patienté
que je m’endorme
pour tolérer de pleurer rien qu’un peu?

combien de fois tu as rêvé
d’un réveil un dimanche
avec rien de changé sinon mon grand sourire
sur mon visage enfin guéri
pour qu’on commence à épuiser
la longue liste de nos rêves?

combien de fois tu n’as rien dit?

combien de vies me faudra-t-il
pour te rendre un centième
de ce que tu mérites?

quelques millions de vies peut-être
même si je sais bien
que tu répéteras pour ces millions de vies
que je ne te dois rien
16 / 16

I wake up with my body

He and I
have coffee
take a shower
and I wash him

we discuss our plans for the day
but I don't have the final say

he doesn't want to move
but I want to run
or at least go outside

he takes our medication
and I have to endure it

and we are both waiting
for the day when we will trust each other again
Je me réveille avec mon corps

lui et moi
nous prenons un café

nous prenons une douche
et je le lave

nous discutons de nos envies pour la journée
mais je n’ai pas le dernier mot

lui ne veut pas bouger
moi je voudrais courir
au moins sortir

lui prend nos traitements
moi je dois les subir

et tous les deux nous attendons
le jour où nous nous referons confiance
29 / 29

My body is an old landscape

it contains ancient ruins
cliffs battered by salt and wind
sulfur fumaroles
wastelands
swamps
immense hidden canyons
and a few snow-covered deserts stretching as far as the eye can see

my body is an old landscape
that I have learned to hate

so
I decided to use
the limestone and sand
the mud, coal, and water
that I have in abundance within me
to build myself a grand palace
where my desires, my memories and my dreams would reign supreme
Mon corps est un vieux paysage

on y trouve des ruines antiques
des falaises battues par le sel et le vent
des cheminées de soufre
des terrains vagues
des marécages
d’immenses canyons cachés
et quelques déserts couverts de neige à perte de vue

mon corps est un vieux paysage
que j’ai appris à détester

alors
j’ai décidé de me servir
du calcaire et du sable
de la boue du charbon et de l’eau
que j’ai en abondance au fond de moi
pour me construire un grand palais
où régneraient mes envies ma mémoire et mes rêves
36 / 36

Come close to me, all of you,
so that together we can form
a body
capable of surviving a little longer

let one give a strong arm
let another give a solid back
a loving mouth
a confident gaze
a hand capable of gentleness

come close to me, all of you
so that together we can rebuild a tolerable world
Venez tous près de moi
pour qu’on se constitue ensemble
un corps
capable de survivre encore un peu

que l’un donne un bras fort
que l’autre donne un dos solide
une bouche amoureuse
un regard persuadé
une main capable de douceur

venez tous près de moi
pour nous refaire ensemble
un monde tolérable
40 / 40

I can't find my luck anymore
not under my bed
not under my sofa
not in my pockets
even though I've looked everywhere

and if someone has taken it
I hope at least they're enjoying it

and if they're not using it
I hope they give it back to me

I've lost it long enough
to know exactly how to use it
my luck
Je ne retrouve plus ma chance
ni sous mon lit
ni sous mon canapé
ni dans mes poches
pourtant j’ai bien cherché

et si quelqu’un l’a prise
j’espère au moins qu’il en profite

et s’il ne s’en sert pas
qu’il me la rende

je l’ai perdue depuis suffisamment longtemps
pour savoir exactement comme l’utiliser
ma chance
47 / 47

Write
on my face
comforting things
and on my body
comforting things
and on my gestures
comforting things
and in my voice
comforting things

and when I am dead
write on my bones
comforting things
with my aches
write on the walls
comforting things
rather than scattering them
Écrivez-moi
sur le visage
des choses réconfortantes
et sur le corps
des choses réconfortantes
et sur mes gestes
des choses réconfortantes
et dans ma voix
des choses réconfortantes

et quand je serai mort
écrivez sur mes os
des choses réconfortantes
avec mes cendres
écrivez sur les murs
des choses réconfortantes
plutôt que de les disperser
49 / 49

let's not talk about it anymore
just tonight
just for one night
without forcing ourselves to say
what to say
for the last time perhaps

what dies
every second
and leaves no trace
and goes without saying where
like caresses fade away
suits me
tonight
if it suits you too

silence
is enough
after having said everything
N’en parlons plus
juste ce soir
rien qu’un soir
sans s’obliger à dire
quoi dire
pour la dernière fois peut-être

ce qui meurt
à chaque instant
et qui ne laisse pas de trace
et qui va sans dire où
comme vont les caresses
me va
ce soir
si ça te va aussi

c’est suffisant
du silence
après s’être tout dit
52 / 52

Since nothing will ever be enough
to forget that we are alive
let's go back laughing
where we have been crying

at least that's something

to leave behind some beautiful memories
over the pain
Puisque plus rien ne suffira
pour oublier qu’on est en train de vivre
retournons rire
où nous avons pleuré

c’est déjà ça

laisser quelques beaux souvenirs
par-dessus la douleur

Arthur Scanu

- France -

Poetry

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11 / 11

13 / 13

16 / 16

29 / 29

36 / 36

40 / 40

47 / 47

49 / 49

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