My hand does not know it is hungry
by Gaby Bedetti and Don Boes, translated from Henri Meschonnic
My hand does not know it is hungry
my skin does not see the night is coming
but time weighs on my heart
my life has been lived in waiting
the eyes draw the lips closer
the laughter at meeting you makes me dizzy the day we meet again
we take up little space.
Henri Meschonnic, Proverbial Dedications (Dédicaces proverbs, Gallimard, 1972)
ABOUT THE CREATORS
Gabriella Bedetti’s translations of Henri Meschonnic’s essays have appeared in New Literary History and Critical Inquiry. She interviewed him in Diacritics and wrote on his work in New Literary History. She and her co-translator, Don Boes, are circulating The Butterfly Tree: Selected Poems of Henri Meschonnic. Their translations have appeared in Puerto del Sol, World Literature Today, The Los Angeles Review, Rhino, Asymptote, and other journals.
Don Boes lives in Lexington, Kentucky. He teaches at Bluegrass Community and Technical College. His first book, The Eighth Continent, was chosen by A. R. Ammons as the recipient of the 1993 Samuel Morse Poetry Prize and published by Northeastern University Press. His chapbook, Railroad Crossing, was published in 2005 by Finishing Line Press in Georgetown, Kentucky. His book, Good Luck with That, was published in 2015 by FutureCycle Press.
Henri Meschonnic (1932-2009) is a key figure of French “new poetics,” best known worldwide for his translations of the Old Testament and the 710-page Critique du rythme: Anthropologie historique du langage. While his critical writing has been translated into English, his poems have never appeared in English in book form. His poetry prizes include Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize, the Guillevic-Ville de Saint-Malo Grand Prize for Poetry.