Montevideo Poem

These last weeks I’ve been working via Skype with old friend Eric Sarner (see above) who is translating Aljibar, a collection of my poems into French for publication in Luxembourg by Editions PHI this spring. (He already translated h.j.r. a few years back.) Sarner just finished a TV documentary on Route 66 & is hiding for three months in Montevideo, Urugay, to write the book that goes with the movie. What a grand way to go about things writerly! (Eric is a lovely poet and an excellent prose writer — his 1985 book on Beyrouth still haunts me all these years later.) And what a great hat! Montevideo — the birthplace of the Comte de Lautréamont, a.k.a Isidore Ducasse, a.k.a Maldoror, the man who is en “mal d’aurore,” who aches for, who misses, who feels deprived of dawn. Here’s a poem by Eric, written in Montevideo, which also has a dawn in it, and translated for the pleasure of seeing if I could hear something Spanish arising between the French and the English. ¿Quien sabe?

Poem 1 of these here years

suppose
this bird
jacana jacana
all along the
river Uruguay
the other morning

there’ll be a little ferocious wind
when warmth comes and
a luke-warm wave
to fool the frost

that’s all I’m promising you

but
keep everything the seasons have to offer
keep everything from one end to the other
these hollow dawns too
the inflammation as much
keep
or eat it all
by heart and lucidity
terribly

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3 Responses

  1. Dan Wilcox says:

    Wonderful little poem, like he wrote it in a little notebook on his morning walk. Thanks for this.
    DWx

  2. Jason Weiss says:

    Bravo, Pierre,

    for putting a word or two in for Eric Sarner! I used to know him slightly
    and ran into him a few times over the years I was in Paris. I was always impressed by the range of his activities. Another
    splendid post.

  3. With Hammer And Tong...The LetterShaper says:

    I have much enjoyed my walk through your world today; as a poet and an avid reader, I found your site both enriching as well as enlightening…I thank you.

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