Poems by Louise Dupré

​Windows IV
 
You have taken back the gratitude
that you had given
since your expectations are no longer
devouring
your every word
Now here you are with a useless
soul
floating above you
like a birthday balloon
Neither misery nor joy
but the breath of time
as it pushes toward you horizons
whose décor you cannot make out
One day you will no longer be
of childbearing age
this will be yet another renunciation
Sometimes in your poems
you ask for mercy
simply to remember
that being that you were
 
 
Translated from French by Karen McPherson
​

Windows XIII
 
For a long time you have been hastily
remaking the world
like a cardboard stage set
that passersby enjoy tearing down
each evening on their way home from work
Now you are happy just to go
your way
stopping at indestructible details
the angle of the light
autumn already leaving its impression on the leaves
this pole to which a small boat is moored
in the old port
Your steps bring you there to pause
where the clash of waters begins
Maybe one day you will follow
the river to the sea
 
 
Translated from French by Karen McPherson

NOTE 
Both poems have appeared in Tout près, Montréal, Éditions du Noroît, 2021 (1998).

​Louise Dupré, born in Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada), has published twenty books, which have received many awards. Plus haut que les flammes (Beyond the flames) and La main hantée (The Haunted Hand) both won the Governor General’s Award for poetry. Many of her collections of poetry and several of her novels have been translated into English or other languages. Dupré is a member of the Academy of Letters of Quebec. In December 2014, she was appointed to the Order of Canada "for her contributions to Quebec literature as a poet, novelist, playwright, essayist and professor."

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