Language: French
Poet: Marie-Claire Bancquart
Translator: Claire Eder & Marie Moulin-Salles
Region: France
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silence runs the length of veins
Three poems by Marie-Claire Bancquart, translated from French by Claire Eder and Marie Moulin-Salles
Allongée
Une femme sur la moquette
dit son histoire d’herbe
seins durs contre le sol
prend place en travers de la terre
rejoint des forêts fraîches.
Sous sa robe la nudité
connaît la trêve heureuse
des cailloux des racines.
La bouche sur la sienne
se tait. Le silence longe les veines
arrive au cœur
descend vers l’Océan.
Stretched Out
A woman on the carpet
tells its story of grass
breasts hard against earth
sprawls over soil
returns to cool forests.
Under her dress nakedness
knows the happy truce
of stones of roots.
The mouth on hers
is quiet. Silence runs the length of veins
reaches the heart
heads down to the ocean.
Instantané
Un ciel bleuté comme du lait.
Une voix de même couleur sur la terre.
Dans la ville aux maisons de chaux
une femme chante parmi les siestes.
Au-dessus d’elle pend un chapelet de bombes
arrêté pour toujours dans notre regard.
Pour toujours
à sa rencontre
s’élève cette voix qui s’arrêtera dans une seconde
parmi les figues caillées du sang.
Instantly
A sky blue like milk.
Same-colored voice on the earth.
In the city of limewashed houses
a woman sings among siestas.
Above her dangles a rosary of bombs;
our gaze has pressed pause forever.
Forever
rising to meet it
is this voice, which will stop in a second
among figs congealed with blood.
Baroque
Au bénitier le crane en marbre noir
grandeur nature
cogne votre regard avec deux œillets rouges dans ses orbites.
Très proche
la terre dont il parle
avec ses meubles à elle et l’horloge sourde des insectes
proclame une citoyenneté familière des morts.
Baroque
At the font of holy water, the black marble skull
life-size
wallops your gaze with two red carnations in its sockets.
Very near
the earth of which it speaks
—it has its own furnishings. A clock of insects, muffled,
proclaims the familiar citizenry of the dead.
Marie-Claire Bancquart (1932–2019) was a French poet, novelist, and literary critic. She lived in Paris and was a professor emerita of contemporary French literature at the Sorbonne. Author of over 30 collections of poetry and several novels, she was the recipient of numerous prizes, including the Prix Supervielle, the Prix Max Jacob, and the Prix Robert Ganzo. Her work is anthologized in Rituel d’emportement (2002), Toute minute est première (2019), and Terre énergumène et autres poèmes (2019). A colloquium on Bancquart’s poetry was held in Cerisy-la-Salle in 2011 and was subsequently published by éditions Peter Lang, with the title Dans le feuilletage de la terre.
Claire Eder’s translations have recently appeared in Denver Quarterly, New Ohio Review, Interim, ANMLY, Rhino Poetry, and Azonal. She holds an MFA from the University of Florida and a PhD from Ohio University. She lives in Lexington, Kentucky. Find her online at claireeder.com.
Marie Moulin-Salles is a French teacher and translator with 30 years’ experience. She leads individual and group French classes for children and adults. She holds a Masters degree from Caen University, France, and an advanced Spanish degree from the University of Salamanca, Spain. Her translation work includes business documents, literary texts, simultaneous interpretation in the courtroom, voiceover projects, and live French narration with musical performance. She can be reached at mariesalles1@gmail.com.
