Poems by Lou Raoul

Two poems from Else avec elle, Éditions Isabelle Sauvage, 2012


Ma’aï


in her heart
in the April blue sun
firstly she keeps
a few sentences, words one after the other and while walking she
adds others to them, words, sentences
all one after the other
it’s in her heart
that she warms up in the April blue sun

and they note note note down by hand or on their
keyboards
otherwise they forget them all one after the other
or else forget
in their brimming hearts
in their hearts a clutter
and you too, Else, like them
and to order your days you write lists
this and that in lists

then you join her on the bench, sitting
it’s so as to join her on the bench, sitting
on the little schist bench in front of the house
which is a maisonette with holes in the roof
it’s in her heart
quietly
and gradually the years, sentences words do all that
a hundred and fifty long long songs gwerzio
in her heart by heart, their melodies too
and without hesitation standing she, singing
a series around her many people

you watch her sing in your heart, you say her name and it’s
Ma’aï
you join her in your heart that comes and goes, that comes and goes
you see that they pass by at 14kph in their vehicles
you look away
you watch her in your heart, you say her name and she’s called
Ma’aï

an April blue for everyone listening to her

'vit tout re a selaou un ebrel glas
un ebrel glas 'prof Ma'aï
profañ 'ra Ma'aï
ya profet 'vez se ganti

Ma’aï offers
yes she offers this
an April blue for everyone listening to her





An amzer o tont / The coming weather


tonight it’s so close
it isn’t the russet horse hat hauls the caravan, which knows
you are there
which, from afar, can hear you, you can see its ears, between the branches
ha ne ra nemet glav
and it does but rain

may he who is looking at tomorrow’s weather in the sky turn
around, return
ruz da noz glav pe avel antronoz, red at night rain or wind
the next day
but he who is looking at tomorrow’s weather in the sky is
further off, not with the russet horse either

may he who places in the hearth the very large log which should not
be entirely consumed turn around, return
he who holds the poker
for he warms up the souls of the dead who come back from time
to time
who come to the places where they lived
kef Nedeleg pe skod Nedeleg, the Yule log, yes,
not like a Swiss roll of a log, no, not at all
a wooden log
the cold poker, wrapped up in paper, in a cloth
the poker in the cupboard, between piles of sheets, all year

still standing the russet horse which listens to you, beyond the mound
may he who approaches be able to say as well
ar marc’h glas ‘zo deuet maes, the blue horse is out
still looking at the sky
the sky which is clearing, after the rain

you no longer know, Else
if you observed the tomorrow of he who watches the weather
returning souls, such sunny periods
this day you see the threads the flows of light
as well as the fast trains honking long before they arrive
near the men on the track
in the earth of the graveyard, the mixing dusts
and with them, your too

but before
when the night falls, into the full moon you look
not the man with the wagon
you look at the man in front of his red caravan outside inside
his bandoneon
    


Special Thanks to the writer and translator Ian Monk for his translation in English of Lou Raoul's biography and bibliography and Lou Raoul's poems.

​

Raoul (c) Dixit Poetic

Lou Raoul is a French poet. She was born in 1964, in a bilingual French-Breton environment which shaped her perception of life. Her experience of the world, from a very early stage, was influenced by the languages that people customarily speak. Her writing brings Breton close to French and expresses Breton through French. It wavers between narrative and poetic prose and, via the use of characters, delves into the issues of identity and otherness.
Lately, some of her texts have included words from other languages such as English and Croatian.
She has published ten books since 2010, and was awarded the PoésYvelines prize in 2013 for Else avec elle.
Lou Raoul gives public readings, takes part in literary encounters and writing residences, hosts writing and speaking workshops, and works in collaboration with other artists – for instance her musical reading kim m'apprivoise (kim tames me) with musician Kham Meslien –, and as a visual artist with her “livre pauvre” collection, Ko:ra, which she created in 2012 and where she invites other poets.
Her blog http://friches-et-appentis.blogspot.com/ is an open window on her own fields and on other worlds as well.  
Her poetry books are : Otok (Éditions Isabelle Sauvage, 2017) ; Most, (Éditions La Dragonne, 2016); Kim m'apprivoise, (Approches Éditions, 2015) ; Traverses (Éditions Isabelle Sauvage, 2014), Exsangue (Éditions Pré # Carré, 2012); Else avec elle (Éditions Isabelle Sauvage, 2012);
Else comme absentée (Éditions Henry, 2011); Les jours où Else (Éditions Isabelle Sauvage, 2011); Sven (Éditions Gros Textes, 2011); Ouvert l'album (2011); Roche Jagu / Roc'h Ugu (Éditions Encres Vives, 2010).

​

---

---