Seven poems by José-Flore Tappy in translation / World Writing in Translation

• Post By: johntaylor
• Date: 24 août 2019
• Category: News

John Taylor has translated seven poems by José-Flore Tappy for Issue 31 (« Hauntings ») of the journal World Writing in Translation (Two Lines, Fall 2019). The poems have been selected from her book Trás-os-Montes (Éditions La Dogana). Here is one of the poems in French and in English:

Je voudrais, moi,

poser mes yeux sur l’ouvrage

qui l’occupe et retrouver

même un instant

ce murmure d’abeille

 

Assise derrière les tuiles,

à l’ombre d’une mince

toiture de planches,

elle raccommode

la toile de son champ, étale

sur les genoux, où percent déjà

des pierres malignes,

elle en répare les trous

 

près d’elle, couché sur le côté,

le chemin, comme tranche de courge

mordue par les chiens,

halète dans la lumière

 

tandis qu’elle noue les fils

 

 

I’d myself like to set

my eyes on the piece of work

she’s busy with and recover

even for a moment

this droning of bees

 

Sitting behind the tiles

and shaded by the thin

boards of a roof,

she’s mending the cloth of her field,

unfolded on her knees,

where nasty rocks

are already breaking through,

she mends the holes they make

 

near her, lying to the side,

the path, like a piece of pumpkin

nibbled at by dogs,

is panting in the light

 

while she ties up the strands

© José-Flore Tappy & © John Taylor for the English translation