Translated from the French by Rosanna Warren
what remains
what resists
what lives
between lips
between hands
what may be eaten
what may not be eaten
what separates
words
from
what may be eaten
and the finger
makes the glasses sing
when the wine passes
from one
to another
what wars under the tablecloth
what wars under the pillow
what arsons in the candlestick
the bread
has not
risen
the knife keeps watch over the plate
knot the napkin
around the necks
of the dead
last night we ground up
the fish bones
carrot slices
swim in jelly
where is
the book
the book is missing
we lost it in
flight
or exile
burned it
restrain the least gesture
this day make
_ _ a void
turn down
all invitations
keep the world
between your lips
renounce
the usefulness
_ _ of words
follow the breath
no word weighs down
don’t name anything
what is to come will come
Michaël Glück is a French poet, prose-writer, playwright, and translator. He received the Prix de Créateurs in 1981 for La mémoire écorchée / Abbatoirs La Mouche (Editions Jean-Michel Place). Cette chose-là, ma mère (Editions J. Brémond) received the Prix Antonin Artaud. Glück, who studied philosophy with Emanuel Levinas, has evolved a distinctive Judaic vision within the context of modern French poetry. Le Repos, dans la suite des jours is the seventh volume in a series devoted to the Book of Genesis. (10/2010)
Rosanna Warren teaches comparative literature at Boston University. Her new book of poems, Ghost in a Red Hat, is due out in March 2011. (10/2010)
Michaël Glück is a French poet, prose-writer, playwright, and translator. He received the Prix de Créateurs in 1981 for La mémoire écorchée / Abbatoirs La Mouche (Editions Jean-Michel Place). Cette chose-là, ma mère (Editions J. Brémond) received the Prix Antonin Artaud. Glück, who studied philosophy with Emanuel Levinas, has evolved a distinctive Judaic vision within the context of modern French poetry. (updated 10/2010)