Slow is the time I take to reach you
The trains are always late
Before we arrive in the city
Here is the wall
Endless, unending, at an end
Enclosure of grime
Of nourishment the factory
Lent est le temps qui m'amène à toi
Les trains ont toujours du retard
Avant d'atteindre la ville
C'est le mur interminable
Interminable, terminé
De l'enceinte sale Nourricière l'usine
________
Sometimes the lie is waiting for us
Its direct superior is silence
I confuse fatherhood with
Human resources
But always at evening
The lamp that goes out too soon
On our exhaustion
Will invoke the price of our defiance
Parfois le mensonge nous guette
Le silence est son supérieur hiérarchique
Je confonds paternité et
Ressources humaines
Mais toujours le soir
La lampe qui s’éteint trop vite
Sur notre langueur
Evoquera le prix de notre insoumission
________
At times the revealed
Impression of not going far enough
In the exploration of things
A deficiency of class
The hand before
It writes hesitates
Between mind and bone
Parfois l'impression
Révélée de ne pas aller assez loin
Dans l'exploration des choses
Une insuffisance de classe
La main qui écrit
Antérieure hésite
Entre crâne et corps
________
Where there is a dream
You make preparations
Where there is a future
A sum of experience to be renewed
And in between, the blind wall
Private, intimate, personal
Leads to the wisdom of limits
Là où il y a rêve
Tu fais des prévisions
Là où il y a avenir
Une somme d'expériences à reconduire
Et le mur aveugle entre
Privé, intime, personnel
Conduit à la sagesse des limites
________
You pull up and plant elsewhere. Sure of where you come from, you keep quiet. To the point of forgetting. But most of all you are the one who disappears. The place you come from lies fallow; you plant elsewhere. Trust in the wind. Say again the gesture you are, repeat. Nothing more. With nothing else. The wind is enough to change your breath. Do not forget. Do not forget yourself.
Tu arraches, sèmes ailleurs. Sûr d’où tu viens, tu te tais. Jusqu’à oublier. Mais avant tout, c’est toi qui disparais. D’où tu viens est en friche : tu sèmes ailleurs. Fais confiance au vent. Redis le geste que tu es, sans cesse. Sans plus. Sans rien d’autre. Le vent suffit à modifier l'haleine. N’oublie pas. Ne t’oublie pas.
________
Unbolt the door
See the worker again
Riveting
See the truth
At work
In him like yesterday
Ouvrir le verrou
Revoir l'ouvrier
River
Voir le vrai
Oeuvrer
En lui comme hier
Maxime Coton was born in 1986. Devotes himself to literature in different forms and media, because books are needed but not enough. Aims to find balance between poetic and political topics. Has won several poetic awards in Belgium and abroad.
Nathaniel Rudavsky-Brody was born in Columbus, Ohio. He has translated the work of French and Belgian poets, including Benjamin Fondane, for which he was awarded the Susan Sontag Prize for Translation. He is also the author of two volumes of poetry in French, and has worked as a typesetter, a programmer, and a private tutor in Greece.