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It was a November of bitter rain and snow blackened by use

By Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Translated from French by Marilyn Hacker

February 2, 2012

Published in Poetry by Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Lebanon

Texture photo of dirty snow after a blizzard.

Photo by Clay LeConey from Unsplash.. Public Domain.

Original Language

we filed the dead leaves by size to ease the task of the forest that was absent for
reasons known only to itself
The parents had left with the door
We mistook puddles for creeks
pebbles for meteorites
the wind’s hordes for wolves
A child would liquefy as soon as a snowflake touched the ground
We could hold out till Epiphany
handling our feet like toys
waiting for a redistribution of parents

© Vénus Khoury-Ghata. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2012 by Marilyn Hacker. All rights reserved.

we filed the dead leaves by size to ease the task of the forest that was absent for
reasons known only to itself
The parents had left with the door
We mistook puddles for creeks
pebbles for meteorites
the wind’s hordes for wolves
A child would liquefy as soon as a snowflake touched the ground
We could hold out till Epiphany
handling our feet like toys
waiting for a redistribution of parents

© Vénus Khoury-Ghata. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2012 by Marilyn Hacker. All rights reserved.

C’etait novembre en pluies acides et neiges noircies par I’usage

C’etait novembre en pluies acides et neiges noircies par I’usage

Nous classions les feuilles mortes par ordre de taille pour faciliter la tache de la forêt absente pour des raisons connues d’elle seule

Les parents partis avec la porte

Nous prenions les flaques d’eau pour des criques

les cailloux pour des météorites

les meutes de vent pour des loups

un enfant se liquéfiait dès qu’un flacon touchait terre

nous pouvions tenk jusqu’à 1’épiphanie

Manier nos pieds comme des jouets

en attendant une redistribution des parents

il nous arrivait de les apercevoir entre deux couches de terre

le coup de pied asséné au sillon faisait crier un caillou

Mais ce n’étaient qu’hallucinations de bûcheron à la herse rouillée

Vénus Khoury-Ghata

Vénus Khoury-Ghata is a Lebanese poet and novelist who lives in France.

Marilyn Hacker

Marilyn Hacker is the author of fourteen books of poems and the translator of eighteen books of French and Francophone poets.

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