A Translated Selection from THE OBLIQUE INSTANT

L’Oreille du Loup: Paris, 2009

Béatrice Libert

Translated by

Judy Pfau Cochran

Denison University, 2011

TRACE

I trace a word

and it becomes life

a breath a rhythm

the asymptote of a wish

drawn from a distant center

a creation of clay

in your hands

ADMISSION

A button is missing

from my winter coat

Shall I sew it back

or guard it intact

the admission of my infirmity?

HUMUS

I beg forgiveness from the earth

I have killed her birds

spoiled her mosses

I have filled her belly

with the dregs of our pleasures

Humus will get the better of me

ASHES

This word burned from within

and sticking to my skin

lacerates my heart

it is the lost body of a poem

the ashes of a face

still alive

SNOW

From my weariness

heavy as four

I extract honey

Arhythmia of breath

I am faceless and lame

standing all the same

on the line of demarcation

of an impending snow

Back

EXORCISM

Do not listen to night falling

in the ravine of melancholy

A lotus chokes its heart

Soothe the shadows of your anguish

by inscribing on the back of day

all that breaks what you have locked away

Expose what was not said

but only understood

and echoes still

unspoken