TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY PATRICK WILLIAMSON

Image Used For Representation

1

EVERY TREE SEEKS THE SKY

Who else knows the wind so well
To bear witness to its birth
I don’t know where its wings are hiding

The trees look – and keep silent – at
Their leaves that flirt
At the breath of spans and southerly winds

The roots test the soil
The shoot floats away
As light as release

At the foot of a seqouia
All eyes covet the top
The sky will be hope
As long as trees woo the light

I don’t know much about the skies
Subjugating them to the weather’s moods

Every marvel makes my disarray worse

For man it all begins here
Who knows if everything ends here?

2

Our straying stakes out
the paths of centuries
and the lights of dawn
not illumined the sources

an intensity of tone
indwells the vanities
that always slope off
when it’s time to charge

the gates of destiny
open to the bold

here is the offering of our sweat
of our consecrated blood
of our red blood of rebirth

let your horses fly away
to the wild shores
where heaven and earth commune

3

On the empty chair
There’s nothing left but your cry

The bruising of the soul

Your fallen flesh
Delights the powers of death

And their sardonic laughter
Lacerates the atmosphere

Torture, humour of tyranny

4

COMPANION OF THE GODS

The soul crumples in the snow of the Tropics
Mountain high trestle of mystery high
I attest here: the mountain is the companion of the gods

I hail the cloud-boots a forager throws away
I hail the silver sailboats heading out to sea
I’d know how to make the trip as a stowaway

What’s a swim in the Nereids’ bath worth

Crystal-shattered light on the needle tip
Such a visit from the Paraclete
An abyss of vertigo at the zenith of dreams
Heavens that hide beneath the veils of clouds
Backbone rightened by the rigour of the slope,
One only climbs the mountain devoutly

Also, read Silence by Mikica Pindzo translated from the Italian by Brenda Porster, and published in The Antonym:

Silence— Mikica Pindzo

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