Si je vous dis
si je vous dis le livre vert ouvert
sur la table du jardin devant moi
quand je le dis pour vous je le fais
exister même s’il n’y a ni jardin ni table
ni livre devant moi cependant il faut
que je sois là pour le dire ce livre
que je vous livre vert ouvert sur la table
du jardin ce héros tout neuf d’une nouvelle
fiction cet absent de toutes les bibliothèques
ce vers de six pieds ce livre vert ouvert
pour vous dont je vois la main se tendre
vers lui vous qui commencez à le lire
ce livre vert ouvert dont le texte restera
pour moi à jamais caché derrière votre épaule
à moins que je ne commence à l’écrire
Translations of this Poem
If I say to you
Translator: David Kinloch
If I say to you the green parking meter
on the pavement by the garden in front of me
when I say it for you I make it
exist even if there is neither garden nor pavement
nor meter in front of me and yet I must
be there to say it this meter
whose greenness I mete out to you on the pavement
by the garden this bright hero of a brand new
fictional parking lot which does not figure
in the annals of any yellow peril
this six foot metre this green meter
beckoning you whose hand stretches
to delete the detail of the dial which you begin to read
this fine meter’s fine whose face value
will remain for me forever hidden behind your shoulder
unless of course poetically I pay it tribute
If I say to you
Translator: Brian McCabe
If I say to you the open green book
on the garden table in front of me
when I say it to you I make it
exist for you even if there is no garden no table
no book in front of me nevertheless it must be
that I am there to say this book
which I give you green open on the garden
table this completely new hero
of a new fiction this absentee from all libraries
this verse of six feet this open green book
for you whose hand is reaching out
towards it you who begin to read it
this open green book of which the text will remain
for me forever hidden behind your shoulder
unless I begin to write it
About this poem
The Scottish Poetry Library in partnership with the Institut français d’Ecosse invited Jacques Rancourt, director of the annual Festival franco-anglais de poésie and editor of La Traductière, to choose about twenty poems from the last twenty years to be circulated to four Scottish poets, who would then choose twelve poems to translate.
M. Rancourt and Magi Gibson, David Kinloch, Brian McCabe and Donny O’Rourke gathered in the Scottish Poetry Library on 15 December 2002 for a concentrated day of translation, re-working and working on the poems they’d chosen, with advice from M. Rancourt and in discussion with each other. This collegial approach was different from the usual practice of showing work to one or two friends in its intensity of focus and level of exchange.
For the most part these translations are very close to the originals, but for ‘Si je vous dis’ we have the ‘plain’ version by Brian McCabe and a version by David Kinloch that changes the central image whilst preserving the metaphorical transformation.
