| VOYELLES | VOWELS |
| Arthur Rimbaud | trans. Martin Bennett |
|
A noir, E blanc, I rouge, U vert, O bleu: voyelles, Je dirai quelque jour vos naissances latentes: A, noir corset velu des mouches éclatantes Qui bombinent autour des puanteurs cruelles, Golfes d'ombre; E, candeurs des vapeurs et des tentes, Lances des glaciers, rois blancs, frissons d'ombelles; I, pourpres, sang craché, rire des lèvres belles Dans la colère ou les ivresses pénitentes; U, cycles, vibrements divins des mers virides, Paix des pâtis semés d'animaux, paix des rides Que l'alchimie imprime aux grands fronts studieux; O, suprême clairon plein des strideurs étranges, Silences traversés des Mondes et des Anges: - O l'Oméga, rayon violet de Ses Yeux! |
A:...Are you a Hillbilly or an upside-down flower? .......On the tongue you are sweet vermouth, .......To the eye a wigwam initialling catatonic plains. .......To think you started as a fly escaping some ogre's mouth; .......Look how you have changed. E:...The bird is green. With jet-black eyes .......It peers out from a backdrop of sunburned yellow .......A continent of grass ago - .......O aerials, derricks, smokestacks, .......Or are you a Martian's hat perhaps, .......The tresses of Mimi? I:....'s the colour of railroad tracks, .......A robot's cryptic smile. Bold as a tree .......In whose branches a phone rings forever and a day. .......Striped with rain, it stands at attention, .......Cap an inky extra that sometimes disappears. O:...The mouth monocled, shape and essence of surprise itself, .......Where would we be without you? .......Exit and mysterious entrance, so large, so small, .......Porthole onto all our words cannot say. U:...Owl's favourite, this one conjures foghorns, .......A cavern's gape, sagacious beards - .......Brightly-scarfed skaters flashing across lakes in Finland - .......Turquoise twisting in the dark ... |
Trans. copyright © Martin Bennett 2005; publ. Modern Poetry in Translation III.4