Marie-Claire Bancquart

(translated by Wendy Hardenberg)

 

Paroles

Exorcisées de l’essentiel

marchant
de faille en faille

barrées
par des vols d’oiseaux

nos paroles du moins étaient comme un silence
de dormeur qui rêve au silence
en plein fracas des bulldozers.

Words

Exorcised of the essential

marching
from flaw to flaw

criss-crossed
by flights of birds

at least our words were like the silence
of a sleeper who dreams of silence
amid the roar of bulldozers.

Marie-Claire Bancquart (b. 1932) is a prolific and prize-winning French poet, novelist, essayist, and critic, as well as a Professor Emeritus of French literature at the Sorbonne (Université de Paris-IV). Wendy Hardenberg translates her poetry because it’s like getting to write it.