In this paper I examine three lectures by Paul Ricœur: two about imagination and the metaphor, and a third one about the writing of history and the representation of the past. The objective is to establish the connections between time and word on account of the creative speech; this creative speech is born from the productive imagination and, at the same time, it may be able to express the finite and temporary being that we are. The creative speech, which is (...) expressed through temporary figures, typical of poetry and narrative, is also decisive for historiographic work, both in the process of documentary research, and in the posing of questions about historical events, and, therefore, for the writing of history. (shrink)