Poem
Michel Deguy
Earth
You return. You leave the shore. You return to earth. The bitters quit the sea. Suddenlythat half of the earth that was sea returns to earth – forest, fields, countryside. In turn this turns
into ocean. You return to the world of the living as a disembarked Greek turned away from
the infertile. Immensity becomes solid, harvester, green and gold, fordable. The clouds are
useful. You push the bushes away from the edge, enter the wood, return to thickness – the
inpenetrable. The oak wood sings.
At the same time it is time, the double system each half is the whole, in
un-division.
That of Hölderlinian serenity: the forgetting of threat, vastness, durability, the forever
of multiple mutual loving, the same spectacle as when the world makes a spectacle of itself,
Leopardian leisure; when the meadows and waters, forests and flowers, clouds and snows
assonate in the zeal of seasons.
With this: repulsed, sensed, ulcerating, the funereal counter-current, the plot of destiny,
affliction and disturbance, the conspiracy of loss, here are morition of relatives, contagion of
ills, acerbic erosion, general calumny, abbreviation of life, encumbrance, earth past its date,
extermination of the past, dying.
© Translation: 2004, Anne Talvaz
Terre
Terre
Tu rentres. Tu quittes le rivage. Tu retournes en terre. Les amers quittent la mer.Soudain cette moitié du monde qui était en mer redevient terre – forêts, champs, campagne. A
son tour celle-ci devient l’océan. Tu reviens au monde des vivants comme un Grec débarqué
tournait le dos à l’inféconde. L’immensité se fait solide, moissonneuse, verte et blonde,
guéable. Les nuages sont utile. Tu écartes les buissons de la lisière, rentres dans le bois,
retournes à l’épais – l’impénétrable. La forêt de chênes chante.
En même temps c’est le temps, le double régime chaque moitié est le tout, dans
l’indivsion.
Celle de la sérénité hölderlinienne: l’oubli de la menace, le vaste, la pérennité, le pour-
toujours du s’entr’aimer multiple, pareil au spectacle quand le monde se donne en spectacle,
l’oisiveté léopardienne; c’est quand les champs et les eaux, les forêts et les fleurs, les nuages
et les neiges assonent dans le zèle des saisons.
Avec celle-ci: repoussé, pressenti, ulcérant, le contre-courant funèbre, le complot du
destin, affliction et nuisance, la conspiration de la perte, voici la morition des proches, la
contagion des maux, l’acerbe érosion, la calomnie générale, l’abréviation de la vie,
l’encombre, la terre périmée, l’extermination du passé, le périr.
© 2001, Michel Deguy
From: L’impair
Publisher: Farrago,
From: L’impair
Publisher: Farrago,
Poems
Poems of Michel Deguy
Close
Earth
You return. You leave the shore. You return to earth. The bitters quit the sea. Suddenlythat half of the earth that was sea returns to earth – forest, fields, countryside. In turn this turns
into ocean. You return to the world of the living as a disembarked Greek turned away from
the infertile. Immensity becomes solid, harvester, green and gold, fordable. The clouds are
useful. You push the bushes away from the edge, enter the wood, return to thickness – the
inpenetrable. The oak wood sings.
At the same time it is time, the double system each half is the whole, in
un-division.
That of Hölderlinian serenity: the forgetting of threat, vastness, durability, the forever
of multiple mutual loving, the same spectacle as when the world makes a spectacle of itself,
Leopardian leisure; when the meadows and waters, forests and flowers, clouds and snows
assonate in the zeal of seasons.
With this: repulsed, sensed, ulcerating, the funereal counter-current, the plot of destiny,
affliction and disturbance, the conspiracy of loss, here are morition of relatives, contagion of
ills, acerbic erosion, general calumny, abbreviation of life, encumbrance, earth past its date,
extermination of the past, dying.
© 2004, Anne Talvaz
From: L’impair
From: L’impair
Earth
You return. You leave the shore. You return to earth. The bitters quit the sea. Suddenlythat half of the earth that was sea returns to earth – forest, fields, countryside. In turn this turns
into ocean. You return to the world of the living as a disembarked Greek turned away from
the infertile. Immensity becomes solid, harvester, green and gold, fordable. The clouds are
useful. You push the bushes away from the edge, enter the wood, return to thickness – the
inpenetrable. The oak wood sings.
At the same time it is time, the double system each half is the whole, in
un-division.
That of Hölderlinian serenity: the forgetting of threat, vastness, durability, the forever
of multiple mutual loving, the same spectacle as when the world makes a spectacle of itself,
Leopardian leisure; when the meadows and waters, forests and flowers, clouds and snows
assonate in the zeal of seasons.
With this: repulsed, sensed, ulcerating, the funereal counter-current, the plot of destiny,
affliction and disturbance, the conspiracy of loss, here are morition of relatives, contagion of
ills, acerbic erosion, general calumny, abbreviation of life, encumbrance, earth past its date,
extermination of the past, dying.
© 2004, Anne Talvaz
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