JACQUELINE RISSET - TRANSLATED BY NORMA COLE
from
The Translation Begins (la Traduction commence)
M.P. 1908
so you see that dead/
one is almost alive/
sweaters burned you should/
dream, rapidly following /
voices that me: "but you have/
from the world to/
the double six/
fleecing the eggs, enlightening/
the fire/
leave to say: the door, your/
and wind on/
great marble halls/
great Venetian blinds/
square place/
that the face, weight/
erotic dreams with/
retroactive subject/
of the known, of the inaccessible/
nor also/
wrecked kept without pleasure/
that there be blaze n' /
o matter what/
she my book No and yet the power/
between persons who are/
known to each other and who/
Trees you have no more/
comes my father (brother?) is stunned/
nothing more Idem/
painting/
known the whole pouch of/
stamps/
cadignan,
fears/
of return, truth/
circumstances voluptuous/
and vulgar/
emerging phrase for/
tempting, and the scent of/
and and the shape of the room/
powerful intuitions/
an evening of exhaustion/
or dead Principle/
la Traduction commence
(Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1978)
Jacqueline Risset read the author's Bio and Working Notes go to this issue's table of contents
