Mantis 19 (Spring 2020)
Translation
Henri Meschonnic
translated from the French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes
de Parole rencontre
je parle
parce que j’existe
pas pour peupler des natures
ni pour imaginer l’amour
ni pour convaincre ni pour me voir
mais parce que j’existe
je parle
la nuit dont je suis le poids
le rivage dont je suis la mer
je cache des quais de cannelle chaude
où mes souvenirs font des arcades
où des enfants m’entourent
bien des rencontres témoignent en ma faveur
ne les sent
une vieille envie de vivre
met son museau dans mes doigts
je copie des soirs fidèles
from Word Fray
I speak
because I exist
not to give life to people
nor to imagine love
nor to persuade nor to see myself
but because I exist
I speak
the night whose weight I am
the shore whose sea I am
I hide docks of hot cinnamon
where my memories build arcades
where children surround me
many frays testify in my favor
do they feel
an old desire to live
rubs its muzzle in my fingers
I copy steadfast evenings
de L’obscur travaille
l’obscur
travaille ma lumiére
des forms que je ne comprends pas
me traversent
et je me mets à lire
des lettres que je ne comprends pas
alors je commence
à voir clair
from The Dark Works
the dark
work my light
forms that I don’t understand
go through me
and I start to read
letters that I don’t understand
then I begin
to see clearly
HENRI MESCHONNIC (1932–2009) is a key figure of French “new poetics,” best known worldwide for his translations from the Old Testament and the 710-page Critique du rythme. During his long career, Meschonnic generated controversy in the literary community. His poems appear in more than a dozen languages; however, even now, almost none of Meschonnic’s poems have been translated into English. 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.
GABRIELLA BEDETTI studied translation at the University of Iowa and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her translations of Meschonnic’s essays and other writings have appeared in New Literary History, Critical Inquiry, and Diacritics. Meschonnic was a guest of the MLA at her roundtable with Ralph Cohen and Susan Stewart.
DON BOES is the author of Good Luck With That, Railroad Crossing, and The Eighth Continent, selected by A. R. Ammons for the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The Louisville Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, CutBank, Zone 3, Southern Indiana Review, and The Cincinnati Review.