Trees bite into the soil
their bodies parched
in the cold of their roots
gaunt shadows bodies
pressed together
we hear the song
of fracture and desire
body like the tide going out
pale boat
lost in its night
body of love and storm
given over to the earth
that it licks as if
it were a wall to pierce through
Les arbres mordent le sol
corps séchés
dans le froid des racines
ombres maigres corps
serrés contre d’autres
on entend le chant
de fêlure et de désir
corps comma va la marée
barque blême
perdue dans sa nuit
corps d’amour et d’orage
abandonné à la terre
qu’il lèche comme
un mur à percer
It is a time of squalls and scars
a time of tremor and fall
promises spill
like waves
on no shore
birds ask the ravaged earth
for refuge
our gardens dimmed
among the fragrance of rose and lavender
it is a time of shattered glass
of dead screens the lost north
a time of why of how
an entire century to unmake the land
my song raises the dust
of mute scenes
like a gaping hole
in the black house of words
it is a time of never enough
a time of even more and even
more even
more
we will not always be able
to rebuild
in this time of bile and scree
the forests tremble
beneath our feet
night draws near
Il fait un temps de bourrasques et de cicatrices
un temps de séisme et de chute
les promesses tombent
comme des vagues
sur aucune rive
les oiseaux demandent refuge
à la terre ravagée
nos jardins éteints
entre l’odeur de rose et de lavande
il fait un temps de verre éclaté
d’écrans morts de nord perdu
un temps de pourquoi de comment
tout un siècle à défaire le paysage
mon chant soulève la poussière
de spectacles muets
comme un trou béant
dans la maison noire des mots
il fait un temps jamais assez
un temps plus encore et encore
plus encore
plus
on ne pourra pas toujours
tout refaire
dans ce temps de bile et d’éboulis
les forêts tremblent
sous nos pas
la nuit approche
SUSANNA LANG’s translations of poetry include Words in Stone by Yves Bonnefoy (University of Massachusetts Press, 1976) and Baalbek by Nohad Salameh (L’Atelier du Grand Tétras, 2021). Her translations are published or forthcoming in Circumference, Delos, New Poetry in Translation, The Literary Review, Transference, Another Chicago Magazine, Ezra, and OOMPH! Journal. Her third full-length collection of original poems, Travel Notes from the River Styx, was published by Terrapin Books in 2017, and her chapbook, Like This, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Books in winter 2022. Among Other Stones: Conversations with Yves Bonnefoy, an e-chapbook of original poems and translations, was published by Mudlark in summer 2021. susannalang.com
HÉLÈNE DORION was born in Québec in 1958. Her first poems appeared in 1981, and since then she has published more than twenty books of poetry and fifteen artists’ books, in addition to works of fiction and memoir and a book-length essay on art and creation. She has earned many of Canada’s and Europe’s most prestigious prizes, including election to the Académie des Lettres du Québec, Chevalière de l’ordre national du Québec, the European Prix Senghor, and the Prix Charles-Vildrac. In 2005, she was the first Canadian to win the Mallarmé Prize, awarded for the entirety of her work. In summer 2022, the Opéra de Montréal and the Opéra de Québec presented an opera that Dorion wrote with her close friend, Marie-Claire Blais, who died in 2021. Yourcenar – Une île de passions (Yourcenar—An Island of Passions) focuses on the world of Marguerite Yourcenar, author of Mémoires d’Hadrian (The Memoirs of Hadrian) and many other works. Dorion’s work has been translated and published in fifteen countries.
