Translators’ Note
In their attempt to animate the poems, the translators resisted smoothing the poetic line or creating lyricism where there is none. Meschonnic’s poems resist particularization of the nouns and verbs because the more general term often serves the expansiveness of the short poems. He abandons poem titles, punctuation, capitalization, and conventional description in favor of a simple universal vocabulary to chart the rhythm of language, the breath, and the line, almost to the point of being diaphanous.
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we are not finished being born
we shout on borrowed time
our mouths agape
with words that are not spoken
on n’a pas fini de naître
on crie en sursis
les lèvres suspendues
à des mots qui ne sont pas dits
I spread open the fingers of my childhood
to uncover my anguished face
happiness finds no place to stay
the sun consumes my tears
the day hides its vermin
in my palm I see
those who measure their lives
je rouvre les doigts de mon enfance
sur des yeux couverts de cris
le bonheur a peu de place
le soleil mange des larmes
le jour cache sa vermine
dans mes paumes je vois
ceux qui comptent leur vie
My lamp doesn’t shine in two houses
I don’t trap my dreams in books
you might as well store fire in paper
I did not hear what you did not say
we survive on what little we know
when I wake up from my deafness
the drawbridge opens before I cross
in two steps I’m already far away
I don’t recognize my hand.
Ma lampe n’a pas deux maisons
je n’enveloppe pas mes rêves dans des livres
autant garder du feu dans du papier
je n’ai pas entendu ce que tu n’as pas dit
nous en portons la trace
quand je me réveille de mes moments sourds
le pont enlève ses planches avant que je passe
à deux pas je suis déjà loin
je ne connais pas ma main.
At our house the tree also chooses the bird
the water resembles the fish
I spill over with comparisons.
Chez nous l’arbre choisit aussi l’oiseau
l’eau ressemble au poisson
je déborde tous les comme.
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Henri Meschonnic (1932–2009) is a key figure of French “new poetics,” best known worldwide for his translations from the Old Testament and for the 710-page Critique du rythme. During his long career, Meschonnic generated controversy in the literary community. His poetry has received prestigious awards, including the Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize, and the Guillevic-Ville de Saint-Malo Grand Prize for Poetry.
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Gabriella Bedetti’s translations of Meschonnic’s essays have appeared in New Literary History, and Critical Inquiry. Her interview with him has appeared in Diacritics. Co-translations of his poems appear in Asymptote, New Delta Review, World Literature Today, and elsewhere. She and Don Boes are circulating their co-translation,The Butterfly Tree: Selected Poems of Henri Meschonnic.
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Don Boes lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his spouse, Gaby Bedetti. He teaches at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. His first book The Eighth Continent was chosen by A. R. Ammons as the recipient of the 1993 Samuel Morse Poetry Prize and published by Northeastern University Press. His chapbook Railroad Crossing was published in 2005 by Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, Kentucky. His book Good Luck with That was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press.
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Peter J. Dellolio is working on a critical study of Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock’s Cinematic World, excerpts of which have appeared in The Midwest Quarterly, Literature/Film Quarterly, Kinema, Flickhead, and North Dakota Quarterly. He lives in Brooklyn.
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