TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY DOMINIQUE HECQ

Image used for representation

Cry

A body. The intertwined. Another body. Bodies and bodies. Littoral cities all alike. Full of lights. Full of sand. Even through closed shutters. High fever slouching in bedrooms. Powdery paths through landscapes. With eucalyptus forests. With red and white gardens. With exoticisms. Silence but for the cry of swifts.

Blue

Since the love encounter. Since the white lilacs. Since February’s wattle. Always a body. Long as a line. East-West that its crosses. Viewpoint indicator. Its huge back. Its voice in the stone. It sharp shadow. And daylight. Crackling. Throws away its crumpled blue

Streaks

Erasing itself a bit more. Body. Even wanted. Open. Birds on it. Digging their nests. In the eyes’ infinite. And in the mouths’ paroxysm of mouths. Blindness. Black lines. Greek green. Going down. Sienna. Colours like islands. And Islands. One behind the other. Ingenuity then they. Fade

Scenery

Beyond bodies. Beyond pleasure. On the customs officer’s path. Overlooking the sea. It’s there. So many bodies already. One upon each other. Forming a mound decked with sand and schist. Beautiful activated landscape. Trees towering. Squeaking. Seabirds swooping. History that buries. Mass grave that lowers down its buckets. Utopia of forgetting. Of love. The sigh in the embrace. The beach and the pareo. Scenery for silting-up. Wattle of the last season. Branch with blooms. Freezing. And short

Daylight / Shade

Left only. Coniferous trees. Powerful smell. Shoot up above the void. Reflections make the water go up. And these pine cones. Suspended. Dance. Dance. Life. Life. Short gallows. Laconic. Like gun shots. To listen. That sparkle. Fallen fruit. Woody body. Frenzy. Body. Other body. Bodies. A bit of bird. And of shadow. And of couple. And of daylight

Notes

Published with permission here is an excerpt from FORMES, collected poems by Chantal Danjou, translated by Dominique Hecq.

Also, Read I Left My Home & Other Poems By Rahma Nur, Translated From The Italian By Pasquale Verdicchio And Loredana Di Martino And Published In The Antonym:

I Left My Home & Other Poems— Rahma Nur

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