3 Lionel Ray Translations

By and | 1 May 2020
Pages: 1 2 3
Sometimes        you gaze at the distance

with a wandering smile,

mouth open, and absent.


As if someone        from your life had been

uprooted        as one uproots        from its earth


a rose.        The leaves are in pain :

new earth nor emptied memory

will heal this wound.


~


Quelquefois        tu regardes au loin

avec un sourire errant

bouche ouverte, absente.


Comme si on avait arraché de ta vie

quelqu’un        comme on arrache        à sa terre


Un lilas, un rosier.        Les feuille souffrent :

ni la terre nouvelle ni l’oubli

ne guérissent l’irréparable blessure.
Pages: 1 2 3
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Alex McKeown is a Tasmanian poet and translator. His work has appeared in Southerly, Island, Transnational Literature and The Canberra Times, among other publications.

More by Alex McKeown on Cordite Poetry Review →
Lionel Ray is a French poet and essayist. He published three collections under his real name (Robert Lorho) in his twenties, and in 1965 he was awarded the Prix Guillaume Apollinaire, France’s most prestigious award for young poets. He adopted his current pseudonym in 1970 upon the publication of a series of poems written in a radically new style, which were fêted by Louis Aragon. He has since become one of France’s preeminent poets, receiving the Prix Goncourt de la Poésie and the Prix de la Société des Gens de Lettres, among many other awards. The poems translated her are taken from his 1993 collection Comme un château défait.

More by Lionel Ray on Cordite Poetry Review →

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