Vois impérissable senteur des blancs Lys
18 janvier 2016
Le temps immuable saisons en solstice
Les saisons de cœur chanson pour muets
Etreindre douleurs diapasons fluets
Mots inabordables fermés les calices
Las impénétrables de roches interstices
Les raisons de peur refrains pour muer
Impatientes couleurs les tempêtes huer
Vois impérissable senteur des blancs Lys
Raisons dérisions le temps des débats
Le flanc exposé nombreux les vautours
Amours confusions piétinés abats
Passé composé le temps des détours
Humour perfusions le cœur qu’on abat
Silence imposé s’en va trois petits tours
Poem translated into a Sonnet in English (Italian sonnet version rhyme pattern could not be kept) trying to keep some of the same meanings and attempting to maintain somewhat a rhyme pattern
See the lasting scent of the white lilies
January 18, 2016
The time unchangeable seasons solstices
Seasons of the heart, song for the dumbstruck
Embracing the pains slender tuning forks
Words unaffordable closed chalices
Tired impenetrable of rock the interstices
The reasons of fear, refrains for change
Impatient colours the storms derange
See the lasting scent of the white lilies
Reasons derision debates interval
The exposed flank many the vultures
Loves confusion trampled offal
Past perfect compounded time of detours
Humor infusions the heart being felled
Imposed silence leaves on three little tours
It is as always very difficult to translate poetry from French into English. I shall just take an example to showcase this which is not due merely to the words but also to the different cultural references. For example the last words of the poem “s’en va trois petits tours” which illustrates well this difficulty in translating some French poems into English:
Trois petits tours alludes to the children’s song, the equivalent of nursery rhymes in English, “Trois petits tours et puis s’en va” which somehow brings to mind a pattern of something coming to play along and then leaving for some other playgrounds elsewhere before coming back again.
At the same time there is an implicit reference to three towers that could be three choices that would lock the poet but we don’t know what is the nature of each tower, whether it could be an ivory tower of isolation or a tower of loss of independence, the tower of a lover, the tower of a tyrant etc. I let you imagine different outcomes as the case may be with your own personal experience 🙂
A very big thank you to Globalinfo4all (https://globalinfo4all.wordpress.com/) who sent me the reference of this fantastic composer Yuhki Kuramoto that just ignited the writing of this poem. My poems are always based on personal experiences but these are somehow dormant inside until a spark ignites them, such as the one today from my friend G4all. Note: I wish people would put clearly their name in their gravatar (available under public display name for your gravatar). You can name your wordpress website whatever you want but it would be really nice if you actually went to your gravatar and put a proper public display name that we could refer to you by (and I mean this for all people who have those mysterious or totally unreadable or unmouthable names). We poets and writers love to relate so if you want to remain anonymous, please at least put a fake name that we can call you by 🙂
Romance – Yuhki Kuramoto
Second romance – Yuhki Kuramoto
Memory of Love – Yuhki Kuramoto
Nostalgia – Yuhki Kuramoto
Meditation – Yuhki Kuramoto
Geetha Balvannanathan's Blog - Isis Tratum 