Abandoning the computerdispensing with the airplane the train the rotary pressgunpowder compass the printing pressyou have them scrappedthe very subtle flower of your centuries of intelligence:the bloody man and his screams under concretewhich the television placed ungarnishedbetween the celery and the coq au vinon the evening’s tablecloth.Hello Lebanons hello Americashi thereand the East wasteland of atomic Russian philosophiesis a prophecyis a future that is mostly here.I extract you allcounting on you to extract me as well.I am still the masterof my anamorphoses.To any taker I bequeath the benefitof real time as they sayunacceptable to the slow identity of my flesh.With arms spread wide I make a hard turn backtoward my birdwhich eats the worm of my esophaguswhich sustains itself on the grassy villi of my guts.I unpack all the species of myself.My horse body sleeps on my cliff bodywhich reaches out to my ocean body. À reboursAbandonnant l’ordinateurquittant l’avion le train les rotativespoudre boussole presse à brastu mets à la cassela très subtile fleur de tes siècles d’intelligence:l’homme en sang et ses hurlements sous bétonque la télévision disposa tels quelsentre le céleri et le coq au vinsur la nappe du soir.Bonjour Libans bonjour Amériquesbien le bonjouret l’Orient désert des perspectives atomiques russesen prophétieen avenir qui est un peu là.Je vous sorsattendant que vous me sortiez.Je suis encore maîtressede mes anamorphoses.Je laisse à qui voudra le bénéficedu temps réel comme vous ditesnon acceptable à l’identité lente de ma chair.Je rebrousse très fortementvers mon oiseau bras déployésqui mangeait mon ver d’œsophagelequel se sustentait aux villosités herbues de mes tripes.Je détasse en moi toutes les espèces.Mon corps cheval se couche sur mon corps falaiseen vue de mon corps océan.
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English Copyright © 2024 by Claire Eder and Marie Moulin-Salles.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Marie-Claire Bancquart (1932–2019) was a French poet, novelist, and literary critic. She lived in Paris and was a professor emerita of contemporary French literature at the Sorbonne. Author of over thirty collections of poetry and several novels, she was the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Prix Supervielle, the Prix Max Jacob, and the Prix Robert Ganzo. Her work is anthologized in Rituel d’emportement (2002), Toute minute est première (2019), and Terre énergumène et autres poèmes (2019). A colloquium on Bancquart’s poetry was held in Cerisy-la-Salle in 2011 and was subsequently published by éditions Peter Lang, with the title Dans le feuilletage de la terre.
Claire Eder’s poems and translations have appeared in Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, the Colorado Review, the Cincinnati Review, and The Common, among other publications. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Florida and a PhD in poetry from Ohio University. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where she works in publishing, and she is also a graphic designer for Small Harbor Publishing. Find her online at claireeder.com.
Marie Moulin-Salles is a French teacher and translator with thirty years’ experience. She leads individual and group French classes for children and adults. She holds a master’s degree from Caen University, France, and an advanced Spanish degree from the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her translation work includes business documents, literary texts, simultaneous interpretation in the courtroom, voiceover projects, and live French narration with musical performance. She can be reached at [email protected].
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