Nicole Brossard
trans. by Sylvain Gallais and Cynthia Hogue
Two POEMS
from Cities really
cities stroked when you watch
the slender arms of Isabelle Huppert
as she speaks
the lines from Sarah Kane
cities stroked when someone asks
if sometimes fire is a relief
as well as perhaps a tattoo
—
in the distance with their yellow circles
or the closer tap tap of daily boredom
lap of fountain fairy-neons of night
cities with their tall vertical cabinets
the Martini 4 olives and murmurs
in the distance cities wooed by the haze of civilizations
our hands between supple joys
walls of mirrors and melancholy
electricity stirring in our hair
—
cities in the far North
where I’ve learned to touch
the gray matter of animals
their skins on counters
to wipe the blood off my hands
so I can greet anyone who drops by
from the turquoise horizon of glaciers
with a thirst and hunger forging a link
between tenderness and frost
Cities with a thought that returns
I’m on fire sometimes
because of the population
anyone can
from now on count the corpses
with their names or without their faces
nights when it’s too dark
I’m on fire at least once
in a city
sometimes twice in the same night
but I never say farewell
Nicole Brossard is a poet and novelist from Montreal. She has twice received the Grand Prix du Festival international de la poésie, as well as the Prix Athanase-David, the W. O. Mitchell Award, and the Molson Prize from the Canada Council. In 2008, she was a finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Brossard has published thirty books, including Lointaines (2010), Lumière fragment d’envers (2015), and Temps qui travaille les miroirs (2015), as well as a translation of Ardour by Angela Carr (Coach House, 2015) and a book on translation, Et me voici soudain en train de refaire le monde.
Sylvain Gallais is a French economist. His co-translations have appeared in Aufgabe and Two Lines, among other journals. He is Emeritus Professor of French at Arizona State University.
Cynthia Hogue has published fourteen books, including nine collections of poetry. She is an award-winning co-translator (with Sylvain Gallais) of French poetry. Her most recent co-translation is Joan Darc (2018). Hogue was a 2015 NEA Fellow in Translation, and the inaugural Marshall Chair in Poetry at Arizona State University.