Four Poems

Translated from the French by Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes

lips are more the edge of all that will never
be said than the shore where we throw ourselves into
each other’s words and for us these words begin in the margins
where the movements that join us are prepared before us
separate us with a tune which we cannot say
that we sing but the song is what sings us
and leaves us without a voice

from Nous le passage (We the Passage), Verdier, 1990

you must have some sun
in your blood some sun
in your hands to see the day
to be part of what
illuminates
living
on
the head of a pin
as in worlds

from Je n’ai pas tout entendu (I Did Not Hear the Whole Story),
Dumerchez, 2000

we see life
not with
our eyes alone
we see life
with our whole
body we have
eyes everywhere without knowing
we see it in all directions
we race it we rekindle it
breathless our heart in
our head
we see life
upside down

from Puisque je suis ce buisson (Since I Am This Bush), Arfuyen, 2001

yes we are the ones who visit
the museum to see
behind all these appearances
parts
of us
we are the absent
we are the monster

from Infiniment à venir (Infinitely to Come), Dumerchez, 2004

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Henri Meschonnic (1932–2009) a key figure of French “new poetics,” best known worldwide for his translations from the Old Testament and his Critique du rythme.

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.

Gabriella Bedetti is a translator of Henri Meschonnic’s essays and other writings in New Literary History, Critical Inquiry, and Diacritics.