de Les gestes de la neige
Au centre du monde
se situait la fourche amoureuse
du cou, ta clavicule
métaphysique
En nidification
je suis venue me poser
sur l’amoureux embranchement
de ta poitrine
ta poitrine de coudrier croisé
arbre souple d’étoiles
où volent les colombes
ta poitrine de croisé
from The Gestures of Snow
In the center of the world
was love’s fork
at the neck, your metaphysical
clavicle
Nesting
I came to light myself
on love’s branch
in your chest
your chest of crossed hazel
soft tree of stars
where doves fly
your chest of crossings
de Les gestes de la neige
je réinventerai les premiers
mots de neige
et notre enfance au long sable
des plages
l’étoile s’éclabousse au fond
des lacs glacés
*
l’amour réinvente les signes de ta neige
le corps est mon amour de neige bleu
la neige mon amour
et réinvente les signes de la neige
la neige réinvente les signes de neige
from The Gestures of Snow
I will reinvent the first
words of snow
and our childish days across sand
of beaches
stars splashing down
beneath frozen lakes
*
love rewrites your snow’s signals
the body is my blue snow love
snow my love
it reinvents snow’s signals
snow rewrites its own signals
BÉATRICE BONHOMME (author) is a poet, literary critic, magazine editor, and professor at the Université Côte d'Azur. In 2016, she was awarded the Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize by the Cénacle Européen; and in June 2019, she received the Venus Khoury Ghata Prize for her collection Dialogue avec l’anonyme (Collodion, 2018). In 1994, she founded the review Nu(e), a poetry and art journal that has devoted seventy-five issues to contemporary poetry and now appears online at POEZIBAO. Bonhomme directs La Société des lecteurs de Pierre Jean Jouve and has edited many volumes on poetry with the Centre culturel international de Cerisy. Her most recent poetry collections are Les Boxeurs de l’absurde (L’Etoile des limites, 2019) and Proses écorchées au fil noir (Collodion, 2020). Le mot, la mort, l’amour, a collection of writings on her work, was published by Peter Lang (2012).
EMELIE GRIFFIN (translator) is a poet and editor from Florida. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Houston.