silence is a message from the shadow
that clears no threshold and feeds
on light and the absence of light
silence is a sign when speech
goes awry or stalls mid-word
silence is a garden of the sky
that petitions heaven in mute prayer
shaped like landscape
silence is a question
laid on the question
silence is a house where the poem lives
where it takes a body
even while damning itself to silence
silence is a music whose notes
are the planets and their stars
silence is a season when the fruit of a poem
ripens mutely
silence is a vibration of the immobile
a song to be born in the throat
of vowel-shaped birds
silence is a straying from the road
discretely pointing out the road
in the middle of the road
silence is a hand that opens the poem
the trembled voice of the soul where rises
what we are and are not
silence is the dream of being that dreams
its birth from before its birth
and smothers its first cry
silence is the mirror that washes speech
in the most naked water of speech
silence is an unfinished miracle
where the world takes shape in one blow
amina said
(my translation)
le silence est un message de l’ombre
ReplyDeletequi ne franchit aucun seuil et se nourrit
de la lumière et de son absence
le silence est un signe quand la parole
fait erreur ou reste inachevée
le silence est un jardin du ciel
qui adresse au ciel une prière muette
en forme de paysage
le silence est une question
posée à la question
le silence est la maison où habite le poème
où il prend corps
tout en se condamnant au silence
le silence est une musique dont les notes
sont les planètes et leurs étoiles
le silence est une saison où mûrit le fruit
d’un poème sans mots
le silence est une vibration de l’immobile
un chant à naître dans la gorge
d’oiseaux en forme de voyelles
le silence est une errance
qui indique discrètement le chemin
au milieu du chemin
le silence est la main qui ouvre le poème
la voix tremblée de l’âme d’où surgit
ce que nous sommes et ne sommes pas
le silence est le rêve de l’être qui rêve
sa naissance d’avant sa naissance
et tait son premier cri
le silence est le miroir qui lave la parole
dans l’eau la plus nue de la parole
le silence est un miracle inachevé
où le monde prend forme d’un seul coup
.
here is a question that is occurring to me just now, if there is no distance is there then only silence?
ReplyDeleteand another, is it through the breaching of distance that silence now occurs?
the poem is a series of conundrums. i think this is most fitting. how might we say anything with these flimsy tokens, words? how do we raise meaning from the surface of existence, only to demonstrate the muffling of it?
your photograph is...you know how i feel about this one. it is a presence.
xo
erin
'silence is a garden of the sky' love that, beautiful poem. and love your photo, like a impressionistic frenzy of black and white flowers! :)
ReplyDeletesuperb poem and the photograph is exquisite
ReplyDeleteThe photo ... it's possibility, that's what it is. Incredible.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the poem-translation. It could keep a person busy a long while.