"The day when I will step forth from the shade, ever hardy... dressed as the haughtiest mountain divinity... I will flay the surroundings. Like a mourner reaching the delirious end of her senses, and yet will I slay the wild almond tree... My breast... uncovered... will unfurl the forest where I wander... (Woman distanced from the harvest of love)... crossing from the very doorsill... the resting place of my trembling... and I will gnaw... at the eyelids of the days... the seal and stamp of my lips...
...Conchita served me the last glass of wine
..."The lover will come
Once fearful
of a virginity
I slept within"...
...I listened...
...Night approaches
this night
where I will knock down
the dry figs
like flies
above the cities
of Algiers...
...I will sting
I will arouse
the torpor of men
and the kneeling
of their bodies
so that
their members
stiffen
and
I see there
the color
of my robe.
...Childless,
alone,
I will summon
the love
of the youngest man
and the very
oldest
...and I will apply
my tongue
where their staffs
cross
so that
my sex
(Oh woman far from the gathering of love)
burns.
...Then I will
speak
of those who
astound
and who,
filled with the
song
of a fat-bellied
lark,
snap
the slightness
...of my body
in the signals
of other winds...
...I will bite
yes,
I will bite
I will tell
of the murder
of the hedgehog
who went off
to the mountains.
(I followed... (in love)...
its hide of quills)
and I sensed
my flesh
in flames
(Oh She In Flames... (my joy)...
sown with quills)...
...I will bite
the staff
of the youngest
man
and of the
oldest
so they
attain
in their
cries
this
murder
of the hedgehog... Oh Woman In Flames...
...My joy... (this joy)... of the mountains... with their
hedgehogs... I... WILL GNAW...
Farès poem is from the novel Passenger From the West (translated by Peter Thompson); novel due out in 2010, from U.N.O. Press.
Ekleksographia:
Wave Two
October, 2009
Poems
Peter Thompson translates Nabile Farès
Peter Thompson teaches modern languages and literature at Roger Williams U. His books include Late Liveries, (poetry, 2000), Daybreak and New Words, (song lyrics, 1996, 1998). More recently he has translated Léon-Paul Fargue's Poèmes (2003), Véronique Tadjo's first book of poetry, Red Earth, (2006), and Nabile Farès's Escuchando tu historia (2008). He has edited two anthologies of francophone literature, and translated the Spanish folksong anthology Vamos a cantar.