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Poetry

Unfasten the Silk of Your Silence

By Souad Labbize
Translated from French by Susanna Lang
Algerian poet Souad Labbize pens a sequence of love poems to the voice of a female singer.
A close-up of a vinyl record player
Photo by Adrian Korte on Unsplash
Listen to Souad Labbize read two poems from "Unfasten the Silk of Your Silence"
 
 
·

35

By the grace of comets
fallen from the brilliant
seal of your voice
I buttress arches
curved in the style of Nubian vaults

sparkle with imagination
whenever it’s time to build
from your vocal particles
I admit it makes me happy
to use the immaterial to raise
a city where you welcome me
in the flesh of each material

 

39

Ready to burn
to cross the border
that word moist
at the corner of my lips

dockers load
a ship’s belly
cross paths with others
who unload

unable to slip
between boxes
that word won’t venture
near your waters

From the unpublished manuscript Déboutonner la soie de ton silence. © 2023 by Souad Labbize. By arrangement with the author. Translation © 2023 by Susanna Lang. All rights reserved.

English French (Original)

35

By the grace of comets
fallen from the brilliant
seal of your voice
I buttress arches
curved in the style of Nubian vaults

sparkle with imagination
whenever it’s time to build
from your vocal particles
I admit it makes me happy
to use the immaterial to raise
a city where you welcome me
in the flesh of each material

 

39

Ready to burn
to cross the border
that word moist
at the corner of my lips

dockers load
a ship’s belly
cross paths with others
who unload

unable to slip
between boxes
that word won’t venture
near your waters

35
Par la grâce des comètes
tombées des fulgurances
du sceau de ta voix
j’arc-boute des édifices incurvés
à la mode des voutes nubiennes

pétiller d’imagination
dès qu’il s’agit de bâtir
avec tes particules vocales
j’avoue qu’il me plaît
de fonder avec l’immatériel
une cité où tu m’accueilles
dans la chair de chaque matériau

39
Prêt à brûler
ce mot-là mouille
au bord des lèvres

des dockers chargent
le ventre d’un navire
croisent d’autres
qui le déchargent

incapable de se faufiler
entre les cartons
ce mot-là jusqu’à tes eaux
ne se risque pas

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