Index
Global Poetry Net-Action
Mercedes Roffé
A Stroll
Love poem in twelve tongues
Ombres curtes
Shadows, or are they
shallows, at its edges
Recomandabil
este s|-Ûi g|seÕti
poziÛia cea mai comod|. De exemplu:
Under
rennestensristene,
under de
skimlete murkjellere,
under lindealléenes
fuktige røtter
og parkplenene.
Ao longo da muralha que habitamos
há palavras de vida há palavras de morte
Will we
stroll all night through solitary
streets?
The trees add shade to shade...
Queste selve oggi ragionar d'Amore
udranno in nuova guisa:
Schöne Geliebte,
mein Baum,
dir im Gezweig
hoch mit offener Schläfe
gegen den Mond
schlaf ich, begraben
in meine Flügel.
Brief shadows
Shadows, or are they shallows, at its edges
What's most advisable is finding
the right position. For example,
under the gutters
under the dirty basements
under the poplar grove's humid roots
and the lawn of the parks.
Along the walls we dwell
there's talk of life there's talk of death
Will we stroll all night through solitary
streets? The trees add shade to shade…
forest which today will hear Love
debated in a new way:
Dearly beloved
tree of mine
in the tall frond
I dream you
with an open temple
toward the moon
buried in my wings.
O:
Amigo el que yo más
quería...
Or:
A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion...
Ou:
Detente, sombra de mi bien
esquivo.
Unu wiqellan
apariwan
partout dans l'ombre verte
partout oiseaux chantent
tiatia tia touloulou
tututu
uhuhuhuhuhuh
toulouloutou
toulou
(A
chaque espèce
son espace)
Every
port has its name for the sea
Every
hour... its attendant Spirit
Pero aínda no sabemos
de que banda vai chegar a meia-noite
Or
Friend, the one I care for most
Or
A woman's
face with Nature's own hand painted Hast thou, the master-mistress of my
passion...
Or
Halt, evasive shadow of mine
I let the
stream of these loving waters
carry me
everywhere
in the green shades
everywhere
birds sing
tiatia tia touloulou
tututu uhuhuhuhuhuh
toulouloutou toulou
(To every
species
its own space)
Every port has its name for the sea
Every hour... its attendant Spirit
But we don't know from where
midnight
will come
On the composition of the text
This work was composed as a cadavre
exquis, except that the co-authors are poets from different periods, languages
and countries brought together by an act of reading. They are: * Andreu
Cloquell (Catalan, 1), * Elizabeth Bishop (English, 2), * S. T. Doinas
(Rumanian, 3-4), * Rolf Jacobsen (Norwegian, 5-8), * Mário Cesariny de
Vasconcelos (Portuguese, 9-10), * Allen Ginsberg (English, 11-12), * Torcuato
Tasso (Italian, 13-14), * Johannes Bobrowski (German, 15-20), Anon. (Spanish,
22), * William Shakespeare (English, 24-25), Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
(Spanish, 27), Anon. (Quechua, 18-29), Josée Lapeyrere (French and bird song,
30-34), Louise Herlin (French, 35-36), * W. H. Auden (English, 37), H.D.
(English, 38), and * Manoel Antonio (Galician, 39-40).
In the main, the text follows the order
in which 11 of the authors (those noted with *) appeared in the Spanish poetry
journal Hora de
poesía (vols. 16-17 and 4-5). Into that
structure, I intercalated texts by six others.
Two possible epigraphs--two texts which
caught my eyes just after finishing "A Stroll," establishing their
own relationship with it:
As the boundaries of the state are breached by
international radio forces, the boundaries of the poem, the line, the word, the
text are extended beyond any individual tongue to all discourse, even no-human
discourse.
James
Sherry, "The Boundaries of Poetry." In Charles Bernstein (ed.), The Politics of Poetic Form. Poetry
and Public Policy. New York: Roof, 1990,
p. 229.
The bureaucratic rationalism of death stamps the camp
into a hierarchical and rigid order.... The prohibitions are innumerable and
the rites profuse and senseless. In this order, ubiquitous signs admonish
hygiene and ethics. One message heads all the corridors: Arbeit Macht Frei -- Work gives
Freedom.
The
number of different languages, and the numbing depression that is the
unshakeable companion of the inmates makes organized resistance difficult.
Resistance is manifest in its most shrunken form --the muffled will not die.
Erica
Hunt, ibid. p. 209.