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        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
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      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
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        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions

Poems by ​Jean Portante

​Ma mère me dit où ai-je mis
LA LUNE
et elle pose la lune dans l’évier :
 
puis elle me dit la lune me glisse du cerveau
et elle roule je ne sais où à l’intérieur :
 
puis elle se tait si définitivement que je me dis
qu’elle a tout dit et que le silence ultime existe :
 
puis la lune dans l’évier se rappelle
à mon souvenir si définitivement
que je me dis qu’elle aussi a tout dit
et que le silence ultime existe.
 
 


My mother says to me where did I put
THE MOON
and she puts the moon in the sink:
 
then she says the moon slips from my brain
and rolls around I don’t know where inside:
 
then she stops talking so definitively I say to myself
she’s said everything and ultimate silence exists:
 
then the moon in the sink comes
to my mind so definitively
I say to myself it too has said everything
and ultimate silence exists.
 
 
From In reality, Seren Press, Wales, 2013
Translated from the French by Zoë Skoulding

 


​

Il a plu toute la journée
et ce soir quand les nuages
seront secs et tragiques
je rencontrerai
MON BUVEUR DE MÉMOIRE :
 
qui dit que la sécheresse lui doit beaucoup :
 
les pêcheurs d'eau douce
au moment de jeter leurs filets
aux mailles fines ne se fient pas :
 
ils regardent souvent
vers le ciel tant leurs rivières
leur semblent oublieuses :
 
il croient même que le souvenir
quand il s'évapore
s’en va dans les nuages
qui par hasard passent par là :
 
mais peut-on encore appeler nuage
un nuage engrossé de souvenirs :
 
et en voyant les pêcheurs lancer leurs filets
que peut bien penser une ville
quand dans son ciel défilent
comme un escadron d'avions ennemis
tous les monuments qu'elle n'y a pas érigés :
 
l'évaporation des souvenirs croit-on
serait un mouvement scientifiquement
tragique :
 
les souvenirs imiteraient la pluie
et ne retomberaient jamais à l'endroit
d'où ils auraient commencé leur ascension :
 
ce serait le vent qui les pousserait : 
 
mais peut-on encore appeler vent un vent
qui pousse les souvenirs :
 
et n’est-ce pas parce que le vent
n’est plus le vent
qu’ils lancent leurs filets
vers les nuages
qui ne sont plus les nuages
les pêcheurs alors que sous leurs barques
qui ne sont plus des barques
les avaleurs de mémoire
savourent leur festin :
 
et n’est-ce pas parce que je crois moins
aux nuages qu’à ce qui pourrait
monter là-haut
que ce soir
qui n’est plus un soir
j’ai rendez-vous avec mon mangeur de mémoire.




It’s been raining all day
and this evening when the clouds
become dry and tragic
I’ll meet
MY MEMORY-DRINKER:
 
who says that dryness owes him much:
 
the freshwater fishermen
in the moment of casting their nets
don’t trust the fine mesh:
 
they look often
to the sky their rivers
seem so forgetful to them:
 
they even believe that memory
when it evaporates
moves into the clouds
that pass there by chance:
 
but can one still call cloud
a cloud swollen with memories:
 
and seeing the fishermen cast their nets
what can a town be thinking
when in its sky like
a squadron of enemy planes
all the monuments flash by that it hasn’t yet erected:
 
the evaporation of memories it is believed
could be a scientifically
tragic movement:
 
the memories will imitate the rain
never falling in the place
where they began to rise:
 
it’ll be the wind that pushes them:
 
but can one still call wind a wind
that pushes memories:
 
and isn’t it because the wind
is no longer the wind
that they throw their nets
towards the clouds
that are no longer clouds
the fishermen while under their boats
which are no longer boats
the memory-swallowers
savour their feast:
 
and isn’t it because I think less
about clouds than what could
climb up there
that this evening
which is no longer an evening
I meet with my memory-eater.
 
 
From In reality, Seren Press, Wales, 2013
Translated from the French by Zoë Skoulding
 
 
 

Picture
Jean Portante was born in Differdange (Luxembourg) in 1950. He is Italian origin. He lives in Paris. He has written more than forty books, novels, stories, plays, essays, translations and poetry, and his books have been widely translated in more than twenty countries. In 2003 his book L’Etrange langue was given the prestigious Mallarmé award in France, and the same year Portante received, in France, the Grand Prix d’Automne de la Société des Gens de Lettres, for his entire work.  As a novelist,  Jean Portante published, among others, Mrs Haroy ou la mémoire de la baleine, (1993) translated into many languages and, in 2015, L’Architecture des temps instables. Both novels were given in Luxembourg the reward of the best book of the year. In 2011 he was given in Luxembourg the National Literature Award for his entire work.



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​VerseVille (formerly The Enchanting Verses Literary Review) © 2008-2022    ISSN 0974-3057 Published from India. 

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  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Media Coverages
    • Copyright Notice
    • VerseVille Blog
  • Submissions
    • Poetry and Essays Guidelines
    • Book Review Guidelines
    • Research Series Guidelines
  • Masthead
  • Editions
    • 2011 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XIV November 2011
    • 2012 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XV March 2012
      • ISSUE-XVI July 2012
      • ISSUE-XVII November 2012
    • 2013 Issues >
      • ISSUE-XVIII April 2013
      • ISSUE XIX November 2013
    • 2014 Issues >
      • ISSUE XX May 2014
    • 2015 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXI February 2015
      • Contemporary Indian English Poetry ISSUE XXII November 2015
    • 2016 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIII August 2016
      • Poetry From Ireland ISSUE XXIV December 2016
    • 2017 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXV August 2017
      • ISSUE XXVI December 2017
    • 2018 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXVII July 2018
      • ISSUE XXVIII November 2018
    • 2019 Issues >
      • ISSUE XXIX July 2019
    • 2020 ISSUES >
      • Issue XXX February 2020
      • ISSUE XXXI December 2020
    • 2021 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXII August 2021
    • 2022 ISSUES >
      • ISSUE XXXIII June 2022
      • ISSUE XXXIV December 2022
  • Collaborations
    • Macedonian Collaboration
    • Collaboration with Dutch Foundation for Literature
  • Interviews
  • Prose on Poetry and Poets
    • 2010-2013 >
      • Sylvia Plath by Dr. Nidhi Mehta >
        • Chapter-1(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-2(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-3(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-4(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-5(Sylvia Plath)
        • Chapter-6(Sylvia Plath)
      • Prose Poems of Tagore by Dr. Bina Biswas >
        • Chapter-1(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-2(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-3(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-4(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-5(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-6(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-7(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-8(Rabindranath Tagore)
        • Chapter-9(Rabindranath Tagore)
      • Kazi Nazrul Islam by Dr. Shamenaz Shaikh >
        • Chapter 1(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 2(Nazrul Islam)
        • Chapter 3(Nazrul Islam)
      • Kabir's Poetry by Dr. Anshu Pandey >
        • Chapter 1(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 2(Kabir's Poetry)
        • Chapter 3(Kabir's Poetry)
      • My mind's not right by Dr. Vicky Gilpin >
        • Chapter- 1 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-2 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-3 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
        • Chapter-4 Dr. Vicky Gilpin
      • On Poetry & Poets by Abhay K.
      • Poetry of Kamla Das –A True Voice Of Bourgeoisie Women In India by Dr.Shikha Saxena
      • Identity Issues in the Poetry of Nissim Ezekiel by Dr.Arvind Nawale & Prashant Mothe*
      • Nissim Ezekiel’s Latter-Day Psalms: His Religious and Philosophical Speculations By Dr. Pallavi Srivastava
      • The Moping Owl : the Epitome of Melancholy by Zinia Mitra
      • Gary Soto’s Vision of Chicano Experiences: The Elements of San Joaquin and Human Nature by Paula Hayes
      • Sri Aurobindo: A Poet By Aju Mukhopadhyay
      • Wordsworthian Romanticism in the Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Nature and the Reflective Capabilities of a Poetic Self by Paula Hayes
      • Reflective Journey of T.S. Eliot: From Philosophy to Poetry by Syed Ahmad Raza Abidi
      • North East Indian Poetry: ‘Peace’ in Violence by Ananya .S. Guha
    • 2014-2015 >
      • From The Hidden World of Poetry: Unravelling Celtic mythology in Contemporary Irish Poetry Adam Wyeth
      • Alchemy’s Drama: Conflict, Resolution and Poiesis in the Poetic Work of Art by Michelle Bitting
      • Amir Khushrau: The Musical Soul of India by Dr. Shamenaz
      • PUT YOUR HANDS ON ME: POETRY'S EROTIC ART by Elena Karina Byrne
      • Celtic and Urban Landscapes in Irish Poetry by Linda Ibbotson
      • Trickster at the African Crossroads and the Bridge to the Blues in America by Michelle Bitting
    • 2015-2016 >
      • Orogeny/Erogeny: The “nonsense” of language and the poetics of Ed Dorn T Thilleman
      • Erika Burkart: Fragments, Shards, and Visions by Marc Vincenz
      • English Women Poets and Indian politics
    • 2016-2017 >
      • Children’s Poetry in India- A Case Study of Adil Jussawalla and Ananya Guha by Shruti Sareen
      • Thirteen Thoughts on Poetry in the Digital Age by Mandy kAHN
    • 2017-2018 >
      • From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill
      • Impure Poetry by Tony Barnstone
      • On the Poets: Contributors in Context by Donald Gardner
      • Punching above its Weight: Dutch Poetry in English, a Selection, 2013-2017 by Jane Draycott
  • Print Editions