The classical guitar's wide-ranging and subtle sonic palette, much better at posing questions than asserting answers, has long attracted me to write for it. A set of aphoristic poems by René Char, from which this piece gets its title, began to elicit musical responses from me that seemed well suited to the expressive world of the guitar. Thus the idea was born to compose a set of miniatures inspired by these poems, exploring the same notions of beauty and intensity.