Eighty Years
Eighty Years
This day, day of days, she rises, spreading out, reaches toward
les tombes autour de la mer à la recherche de moi.
Around the sea searching for me, she picks through tombs unknown,
les tombes autour de la mer à la recherche de moi.
From the sea. Died at 23. Washed away miles, she frets, hands out
vers les tombes autour de la mer à la recherche de moi.
High school played marimba, xylophone, saxophone, clarinet, violin—
Je sérénade les tombes autour de la mer où elle me cherche.
My caretaker hears music, finds me, clears old growth and flowers away
des tombes autour de la mer à la recherche de moi.
She sees the stone. Recharges, her search ceased, over now is
les tombes autour de la mer à la recherche de moi.
What of me? Manuel!— be thankful we can be human together in
les tombes autour de la mer à la recherche les unes des autres.
One to the other.
13 thoughts on "Eighty Years"
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Simple and clean !
Well I am not surprised ‘ one to the other’ I am however impressed.
I like the bilingual nature of the poem. Is about a poet? I love it’s music and mystery.
reminds me of marsden hartley’s line in cleophas and his own.
‘the white fence showed where their estate began and ended’
like the structure, language, and story. Good work
The rhythms and use of repetition work well here. I could hear you reading this!
Love the lyrical quality of this poem!
Lovely, I like the repetition (though I had to use Google translate 🙂 ).
Google translate is fun – I have also learned to speak very very very bad French using Google Translate. My friend E tells me it has not the first clue how to speak Norwegian.
Thank you all of you. If you carefully analyze clues in the English, some of the Romance French comes alive in its meaning. After posting it, I became aware that syntactically the Interpol would be after my ass with the French police as Special Detectives for a few lines. A fellow poet J. Robinson who performed at Kenwick Table came up with the idea of an English and alternate language poem, flipping lines, where one could only understand the whole thing through context. I chose the ghazzal. In this case – a broken ghazzal.
Today is the 80th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy by Allied forces, to begin liberation of France – also known as D-Day. June 6, 1944.
Hey, I tried!
I love the ghazal and the way you alternate between English and French.
When I translated the French, gave me chills!
Wonderful ghazal! So moving for D-Day’s anniversary!
Bonsoir Ellen