Wake: Up to Poetry
Poem of the Week: “Poète / Poet” by Vénus Khoury-Ghata
We’ve been posting translations to celebrate National Translation Month, and today we’ve chosen a French poem by Vénus Khoury-Ghata from her collection, Au sud du silence. Khoury-Ghata is a translator herself, most notably from French to Arabic for the magazine Europe, but this poem was translated into English by Michael Bishop for an anthology of French poetry that WFU Press published in 1997.
The translator’s influence comes into play particularly with the word “jaunissent,” which Bishop translates into “yellowing.” The connotation of the French word could indicate a ripening, as a banana turning yellow, or it could indicate a decay, as the yellow that jaundice causes over time. The double meaning highlights the complexities of the poet’s work, the difficult and beautiful act of creation.
Poète
Tu auras pour cité les frontières du silence
pour automne les mots qui jaunissent dans ta bouche
pour épouse la soif qui sort de son linge délirante et nue
Tu nourriras d’oiseaux l’asphalte des villes
de l’argile de tes mains tes phrases
et pour mourir
tu t’allongeras jusqu’aux lointaines limites de ta peau
Poet
Your city will be the frontiers of silence
Your autumn words yellowing in your mouth
Your wife will be thirst shedding its linens delirious and naked
You will feed birds to the tarmac of cities
the clay of your hands to your wordings
and to die
you will stretch out to your skin’s farthest limits
–Vénus Khoury-Ghata, translated by Michael Bishop, from Women’s Poetry in France (1997)
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