Tristan Tzara (b. 1896, Romania) is best known as a poet and cofounder of the Dada movement. After moving from Zurich to Paris in 1919, Tzara wrote in French and worked as a journalist, playwright, art critic and collector, literary scholar, and human rights advocate, publishing more than fifty collections of poetry and prose before his death in 1963. “Speaking Alone” is the title poem of his 1948 collection, Parler seul, originally published as an artist book with lithographs by Joan Miró.