[I am a joy that moves towards you as we enter]

Written By Henri Meschonnic trans. Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes

I am a joy that moves towards you as we enter

the place without measure

we follow ourselves

surround ourselves with the sounds we hear

when the war is ancient

the face hidden from the face so

the eyes are more beautiful

I bring a history that is not ours

unless each moment has the meaning of other moments

a history never told from all sides

but always told from the other side and is no

longer the house of time

but our birth.

Henri Meschonnic (1932–2009) was a French poet, translator, linguist, and theorist, best known for Critique du rythme and his innovative Bible translations. He authored nineteen volumes of poetry and received the Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, and the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize.

Gabriella Bedetti received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Iowa and has worked on Meschonnic’s writing since the 1970s. Her essay translations of, interview with, and article on Meschonnic have appeared in New Literary History, Critical Inquiry, and Diacritics. With her co-translator, she recently published an essay on Meschonnic’s poetry in The Collidescope.

Don Boes received an M.F.A. from Indiana University and is a three-time recipient of a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship. He is the author of Good Luck With That, Railroad Crossing, and The Eighth Continent. His co-translations have appeared in Asymptote, Rhino, and World Literature Today.

Henri Meschonnic trans. Gabriella Bedetti and Don Boes

Henri Meschonnic (1932–2009) was a French poet, translator, linguist, and theorist, best known for Critique du rythme and his innovative Bible translations. He authored nineteen volumes of poetry and received the Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, and the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize.

Gabriella Bedetti received a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Iowa and has worked on Meschonnic’s writing since the 1970s. Her essay translations of, interview with, and article on Meschonnic have appeared in New Literary History, Critical Inquiry, and Diacritics. With her co-translator, she recently published an essay on Meschonnic’s poetry in The Collidescope.

Don Boes received an M.F.A. from Indiana University and is a three-time recipient of a Kentucky Arts Council Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship. He is the author of Good Luck With That, Railroad Crossing, and The Eighth Continent. His co-translations have appeared in Asymptote, Rhino, and World Literature Today.

Previous

Lilith, Lilith