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  • Ce soir derriere ce peu de jour…
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Ce soir derriere ce peu de jour…

Jean Portante

CE SOIR DERRIÈRE ce peu de jour
il y a une torche noire
c’est l’oiseau noir qui me le dit
du haut des câbles électriques

il reste sams doutre quelque lumière
là-haut sur les rails

c’est d’une vielle solitude que s’alimentent
la ville et la champagne
et ceux qui ce soir écoutent
sous perfusion le porte-parole de la nuit

et ils écoutent aussi l’athlète à la torche
noire qui court à travers tout cela
à la vitesse de l’obscurité

et ils touchment en écoutant le manteaux
noir du coureur


Jean Portante

from Point = Erasing (Dublin: Dedalus, 2003)

translated by Anne-Marie Glasheen

Reproduced by kind permission of the publisher.

Tags:

communication Luxembourg night

Translations of this Poem

‘Tonight behind this scrap of day…’

Tonight behind this scrap of day
there is a black torch
it is the black bird that tells me so
from high up on the electric cables

there is still no doubt a little light
up there on the rails

it is on an ancient solitude that town
and countryside feed
and those who listen tonight
on a drip to the night’s spokesperson

and they listen too to the athlete with the black
torch who runs through it all
at the speed of darkness

and they touch as they listen the runner’s
black coat

Source: Reproduced by kind permission of the translator and publisher.

About this poem

This poem, representing Luxembourg, is part of The Written World – our collaboration with BBC radio to broadcast a poem from every single nation competing in London 2012.

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Jean Portante

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