Poems by Yvon Le Men

The Niger I

Taut between sky and water
the fisherman beats time
the length of a crossing

paddle and body one.

Sitting between sky and water
we leave the town behind

we return to silence.

Despite the earth’s colour
we could be on the Channel

and like the sea, the river saves this land.

If I had been born at Bamako
I would go back each day on the river
observe from afar
men close-up

who, if they didn’t smile, would cry with rage.



Niger II

On the opposite side of the river
like on the opposite side of the sea
there is a land
where men like us
live on the opposite side of our lives.

In bygone days
they lived in picture books
and in our fears

like my neighbour
old Marie who spoke only Breton
their tongue was full of sounds
and lacked of words.

We said then
that old Marie jabbered
talking with her mouth full of bread and wine
as if that was possible

we grouped all the multiple languages of Africa
into just one pidgin French
as if all blacks were children.

On the opposite side of the river
lives the bosso family
of the fisherman who ferries us across on his canoe
and between the Bambara, French and smile
we navigate.

We discuss
the beauty of the Niger where children bathe
their games filling us with joy
where birds shoot up
their yellow and blue flight filling us with light.

Images precede words
eyes precede images
a look the first language of all languages.

On the opposite side of the river
behind the reeds
blue silouhettes fade
it’s a woman carrying a basin on her head
like a crown
it’s a man sheperding his flock
like the pastor in an old Peul poem.

There is nothing to remind us of the century
if not the cry of a moped
or a phrase in English stitched on a smuggled T-shirt.

But, between the river and village
the lane of water is cut off.


English translation by Anne Smith

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Yvon LE MEN (c) Eric Legret

Yvon Le Men born 1953 in Bretanny, as a major prose and poetry writer. He lives in Lannion where he organizes the cicle of poetry meetings « Il fait un temps de poème » five time a year. He has published numerous books of poetry published by Flammarion, Gallimard, Rougerie, La Passe du Vent, amongst others. His most recent poetry books went out at Editions Bruno Doucey :  Sous le plafond des phrases (2013) ; En fin de droits (2014) ; Une île en terre, first title of a trilogy entitled Les continents sont des radeaux perdus. The second title, Le poids d’un nuage, went out in 2017. Yvon le Men received the Poetry Prize 2010 of the Académie Littéraire de Bretagne et des Pays de la Loire for his complete works and received in 2012 the Prix Théophile Gautier de l'Académie Française.

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