from Decarceration
And in a flash, this insight that you are
matter which has crossed centuries of flesh,
which makes you feel how much you are,
already, there,
off the subject.
*
Odd, indeed, this experience of
the other,
of something almost
despite
oneself.
Stemming, however, from others,
stemming into others …
*
Incarcerated in a continual absence,
this body from which you are dislodged
incessantly, which
incessantly revives you
in a vast operation
of recuperation.
*
Specify your position, where you should be, how
to double up, are you at ease with yourself,
count the victims, learn
who pulls the strings — execute,
always, an appraisal
of the area.
*
Flesh, however,
as a limit
ever impossible
to override.
*
This body that weighs distances,
evaluates trajectories,
dikes itself up in space-time,
in a rush of blood
sent back
to rugged matter.
*
You stem from a union
which took root
and flew
into pieces.
—from Désincarcération (© Éditions L’Âge d’Homme, 2017)
/ / / / /
A Note on the Translations and the Poet
I first became acquainted with Charline Lambert’s poetry through another project, an anthology of Belgian francophone poetry, selected and edited by Chris Tanasescu (Margento), which I am currently translating. Chris gave me a few of Lambert’s poems to translate. I was immediately struck by the intensity and concision of her writing, her deep engagement with essential themes (desire, the body, subjectivity, the other) which she explores on both psychological and philosophical levels, her unusual use of language (as she occasionally appeals to resonant rare words and scientific terms), and her intricate yet never gratuitous wordplay, which sometimes involves intentional syntactic, semantic, and grammatical ambiguity — that is, multiplicity — as illustrations of the struggle and the resoluteness of language to reflect complex states of feeling, thought, and perception. I can add that Lambert’s books are not “collections” of poems and poetic prose texts, but rather consist of a single long sequence of interconnected pieces approaching a salient theme from various angles. To make a long story short, it did not take me long to wish to discover more of her work … And I have now produced translation manuscripts of her four books.
—John Taylor
/ / / / /
Et d’un éclat, cette intuition d’être une
matière qui a traversé des siècles de chair,
qui te fait sentir combien tu es,
déjà, là
hors-sujet.
*
Curieuse, en effet, cette expérience de
l’autre,
de quelque chose presque
malgré
soi.
Issue pourtant d’autres,
issues dans d’autres …
*
Incarcéré dans une continuelle absence,
ce corps duquel il te déloge
sans cesse, qui
sans cesse te relance
dans une vaste entreprise
de récupération.
*
Précise ta position, où faut-il se mettre,
comment se tordre, es-tu bien en toi, nombre
de victimes, qui
tire les ficelles, exécuter,
toujours, une lecturedes lieux.
*
Une chair, pourtant
comme une limite
à ne jamais pouvoir
outrepasser.
*
Ce corps qui pèse des distances,
évalue des trajectoires,
s’endigue dans l’espace-temps,
d’un coup de sang
retourné à
une matière accidentée.
*
Tu es l’issue d’une union
qui a pris
et volé
en éclats.
— Charline Lambert, from Désincarcération (© Éditions L’Âge d’Homme, 2017)