Translated by Marilyn McCabe
Time, from its pipes, calls in clear chords:
Be one with the sun, you souls and bodies.
By dusty paths and in lush leaves
Exhaust all pleasures, is its only advice;
Take yourself, lose yourself, search for yourself in turn,
Nothing is real but dreams and love.
On the impoverished earth where so much shadow spills
Treasure justice and joy;
Remember what is needed for happiness;
We are deep enough for the day we die.
Live; love, anger, envy.
Poor beings, it is nothing but life.
* * *
Chanson du Temps Opportun
Le Temps, de ses pipeaux, tire de clairs accords,
Bondissez au soleil, les âmes et les corps,
Par les chemins poudreux et la verdure épaisse
Épuisez les plaisirs, c’est la seule sagesse:
Prenez-vous, quittez-vous, cherchez-vous tour à tour,
Il n’est rien de réel que le rêve et l’amour.
Sur la terre indigente où tant d’ombre s’éploie
Ayez souci d’un peu de justice et de joie.
Retenez, du savoir, ce qu’il faut au bonheur:
On est assez profond pour le jour où l’on meurt.
Vivez; ayez l’amour, la colère et l’envie,
Pauvres êtres vivants, il n’est rien que la vie.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 25, Issue 5.
Marilyn McCabe’s poetry has won contests through AROHO, Word Works, Grayson Books, and NYS Council on the Arts. Collections of poems include Perpetual Motion and Glass Factory, and chapbooks Rugged Means of Grace and Being Many Seeds. Videopoems have appeared in festivals and galleries.
French poet Anna de Noailles (1876-1933) was the first woman to receive the title “commander” from the French Legion of Honor, in 1931. In 1921 she won the Grand Prix de Littérature. In 1922 she became the first woman to be named a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of French Language and Literature. Her work has not been widely translated.
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