{"id":1840,"date":"2009-08-27T09:23:03","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T13:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=1840"},"modified":"2009-08-27T09:23:03","modified_gmt":"2009-08-27T13:23:03","slug":"bianus-ritual-for-amplifying-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/bianus-ritual-for-amplifying-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Bianu's Ritual for Amplifying the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Europe’s behind me \u2014 salt over the shoulder \u2014 until the next trip (a November performance with Nicole Peyrafitte in Angoul\u00eame) \u2014 meanwhile it is a treat to be back in Brooklyn, watching the sun set over the Narrows. On the plane back, I started to translate a poem by French poet & writer Z\u00e9no Bianu, the poem with which he often\/usually opens his readings. Here is a video of him reading it (with, unhappily, a little break & a few missing lines somewhere in the middle) in July in Lod\u00e8ve, followed by my translation:<\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

\n

Z\u00e9no Bianu<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

RITUAL
\nFOR AMPLIFYING THE WORLD<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\na verb
\nwithout limits
\na language
\nin which nothing would be said
\nbut everything’s a premonition
\nin the visible world
\n& nowhere else
\nan elevation
\nin the new affection and noise
\nan unheard of miracle
\nunder the sun of consciousness
\nI will begin by being
\nby becoming what I am<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\na device
\nfor wonder
\na journey
\nto the end of the possible
\ntoward
\nwhat teaches me
\nto die
\nthe most silent
\nreason
\nin myself
\nthe swept away
\nwolf
\nof a universal language
\nI will begin by being
\nthe voice of a resonance<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\na breath
\nof light-year
\nagainst the vertigo
\nof the temptation
\nof misfortune
\nan anthology
\nof upheavals
\nthe return
\nof a white night
\ncoursing
\nthrough the veins
\na measureless
\ntenderness
\nI will begin by being
\nin the middle of the dust<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\na smile
\nwounded
\na central
\ncrack
\na shudder
\nthe part given
\noffered
\nto emptiness
\na salvo
\ninto the unforeseeable
\nI will begin by being
\nby the skin of my teeth<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\nthe refusal
\nto dream the same
\nthe refusal
\nof the interior bureaucrat
\na serene exaltation
\na face
\nthat changes into
\na tiger
\nwith each emotion
\na face without a face
\nthat welcomes
\nall the faces
\na sky-quake
\nI will begin by being
\nall the way to
\nparoxysm<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\na thousand miles
\nof heart
\nbeats
\nper second
\nhere on high
\nagainst the flesh-colored
\nrobots
\na leap
\ninto life
\na leap
\ninto emptiness
\na leap
\nof black light
\nI will begin by being
\nmagnetizer pulp<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\nan evening
\nof\u00a0 annihilation
\nthe highest
\nstubbornness
\na science
\nof excess
\nthe digital
\nimprint
\nof death in life
\nthe perfect
\ninsubordination
\nI will begin by being
\npoint-blank<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\nthe one who
\neach day
\ndiscovers the infinite
\nfirst time
\nthe finery of chaos
\nthe desertion
\nof the masks
\nthe accelerated flowering
\nof a flower of meaning
\nthe one who
\nno longer wants to
\ntranslate life
\ninto dead ashes
\nI will begin by being
\nincomparable<\/p>\n

I will begin by being
\nin tune
\nwith a blue wind
\nthe heightened dance
\nof the atoms
\nthe unsuspected fire
\nof my own consummation
\na relaxed vigilance
\na door that flaps
\n& comes & goes
\nwhen I inspire when I expire
\nI will begin by being
\nuntil the end of the world<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

translated by Pierre Joris<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe’s behind me \u2014 salt over the shoulder \u2014 until the next trip (a November performance with Nicole Peyrafitte in Angoul\u00eame) \u2014 meanwhile it is a treat to be back in Brooklyn, watching the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,103,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-readings","category-translation","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}