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Ce soir le silence ne m'aime pas
La pointe du cristal qui dessine mes traces
Peine sur le limon
Et le vent les efface
Si bref est l'instant

Hâte-toi
Tire la corde inéluctable

Je voudrais tant
Prendre à l'aigle sa couronne
Et m'envoler

Tonight silence is no friend
a nib of rock-crystal hardly scratches the silt
and maps my tracks
and the breeze erases them
The moment is so brief

Make haste
stretch the fatal rope

I want so much
to take the crown from the eagle
and fly away

 


© original French by Colette Wittorski
© English version by Fred Johnston from Northern Lights: poems (Belfast: Lapwing, 2009) website: The Western Writers' Circle, Galway

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