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    • Translates into 
      • abkhazian
        afar
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        azerbaijani
        bashkir
        basque
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        tatar
        telugu
        tetum
        turkish
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        vietnamese
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        yakut
        yiddish
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  •  

Paul Vermeersch

Smoke

  • 1 Twenty Days with a Baboon Heart
  • 2 Prosthetic Leg in Storage
  • 3 Smoke | Translations: defr
  • 4 The Painted Beasts of Lascaux | Translations: defr
  • 5 A Glass Eye Finds Its Purpose | Translations: defr
  • 6 Feeding the Deer
  • 7 Garbage Day
  • 8 Notes Toward a Lexicon of the Language of the Bear
  • 9 The Mission House
  • 10 Lambs
Language: english
Translations: german (Legende vom Rauch ), french (Fumée)
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Smoke

As small as I was, before my hair ever darkened,
when I was still a flash of white, my platinum locks,
my baby teeth, the perfect sclera that had never shown
blood vessels already burrowing like pinworms
into some distant morning’s hangover, some rage
at grown-up failures, when I was still that flawless,
that twenty-four carat pure, I knew it was you
who came into our house and weakened my father’s heart,
who choked my mother’s laugh into a cracked and arid rasp.
I saw you loitering in our kitchen, clinging to our windows,
wearing your cheap perfume, when in my nightmares
you were always hiding in the closet, or under the bed,
or curled up like a polyp in the dog’s nostril, waiting
to explode. You lived with us. You touched everything.

We met again when I was sweet sixteen, you so neat
and slim in your white slip, and me sliding, glass by glass,
into my first drunk. At night in a friend’s backyard
fifteen years ago, the fire-lit trees spread their branches
into darkness. The stars above them seemed a little nervous
when they twinkled. The chatter was coming unravelled;
voices walked across the lawn without their mouths
saying words like “punk” and “fuck” and “faggot,”
words without targets, exempt from meaning, so that
the edges peeled away from every sound, every memory.
When someone refused to kiss you, you came to me,   
surprised at how much I’d grown – taller, darker –
and though you hadn’t changed, I wasn’t frightened.
I brought you to my mouth and breathed you in all night.

© Paul Vermeersch
From: unpublished
Audio production: 2007, Literaturwekstatt Berlin

Translations:

Language: german

Legende vom Rauch

Als ich klein war, ein junger Blitz, mit hellen Zähnen
Als die äußere Hülle der Augen wunderbar und ohne Blutgefäße
Als ich noch nicht eindunkelte an Haar und Zahn für immer, denn da
Gruben sich bereits die Adern wie Würmer
In die kommenden und gewaltigen Ausnüchterungen des
Erwachsenwerdens; als ich noch rein war wie
Der Vierundzwanzigkaräter, zornlos, kamst du herein
In unser Haus und gingst los auf das Herz meines Vaters.
Ich sah dich in der Küche herumsitzen und schon verwandelte sich
Das Lachen der Mutter in ihr trockenes und gebrochenes Keuchen.
Unverdrossen hingst du an den Fenstern mit deinem speziellen Parfum.
In meinen Träumen bliebst du im Kleiderschrank versteckt oder du
Schliefst unter meinem Bett. Auch sah ich dich in den verrotzten Nüstern
Des Hundes zusammengebacken und lauernd auf den Knall.

Als ich schnuckelige sechzehn wurde, trafen wir einander wieder. Du
Schlank im weißen Unterrock, indes ich schluckend und unversehens
In den ersten Vollrausch schlitterte. Es war im Hinterhof eines Freundes
Des Nachts und die vom Feuer beleuchteten Bäume streckten ihr Gezweig
Dem Dunkel hin, Sterne drüber zitterten mehr als sie funkelten und die
Stimmen
Liefen über den Rasen und verwendeten Wörter wie
Punker, ficken, Schwuchtel. Die Wörter waren wie ohne Ziel, bloß
Bedeutungslos, die Schneiden ihrer Silben lösten sich von den Geräuschen,
Frei
War all das von Erinnerung. Du unter uns, und einer mochte dich nicht
Einfach küssen, da kamst du zu mir, überrascht, dass ich
Gewachsen und eingedunkelt. Du aber warst dir immergleich.
Ich aber hatte die Angst verloren und so nahm ich dich
An meinen Mund, küsste dich und atmete dich ein bis zum Morgen.

Deutsche Fassung von Robert Schindel.
Die Übersetzung entstand im Rahmen des Übersetzungsworkshops
Versschmuggel des Poesiefestivals Berlin 2007
Language: french

Fumée

Quand j’étais petit, avant que mes cheveux ne deviennent foncés,
quand je n’étais encore qu’un éclair de blancheur, mes boucles platine,
mes dents de lait, le blanc de l’oeil parfait sans aucun
vaisseau sanguin qui creuse comme des vers
un quelconque lendemain de veille, de la rage
contre les échecs des adultes, quand j’étais encore sans défaut,
du pur vingt-quatre carats, je savais que c’était toi
qui venais dans notre maison et affaiblissais le coeur de mon père,
qui étranglais le sourire de ma mère en un gémissement rauque et râpeux.
Je t’ai vue rôder dans la cuisine, te coller aux fenêtres,
portant ton parfum bon marché, dans mes cauchemars
tu te cachais toujours dans le placard, ou sous le lit,
ou tu t’enroulais dans la narine du chien, comme un polype qui attend
d’exploser. Tu habitais avec nous. Tu touchais à tout.

Nous nous sommes revus dans la douceur de mes seize ans, toi si soignée
si fine dans tes dessous blancs, et moi glissant, verre après verre,
dans ma première ébriété. La nuit, dans la cour d’un ami
quinze ans plus tôt, les arbres flamboyants déployaient leurs branches
dans l’obscurité. Les étoiles au-dessus d’eux semblaient un peu nerveuses
lorsqu’elles scintillaient. Le bavardage nous parvenait emmêlé,
les voix marchaient sur la pelouse sans leur bouche
lançant des mots comme « minable », « fuck », « tapette »,
des mots sans intention, dépourvus de sens, à tel point que
les contours se détachaient de chaque son, de chaque mémoire.
Après que quelqu’un a refusé de t’embrasser, tu es venue à moi,
surprise de voir combien j’avais grandi — plus grand, plus foncé —
et bien que tu n’aies pas changé, je n’ai pas eu peur.
Je t’ai portée à ma bouche et je t’ai inspirée toute la nuit.

traduit par Marc André Brouillette,
(avec la collaboration d’Arnaud Roi et Steven Corcoran)
Versschmuggel, Poesiefestival Berlin 2007
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Paul Vermeersch

* 17.11.1973, Mississauga, Canada
lives in: Toronto, Canada

Paul Vermeersch was born in 1973 in Mississauga, Canada. He lives as a poet in Toronto.

In 1998, he founded the I.V. Lounge Reading Series and later published an anthology, The I.V. Lounge Reader (2001).

His poems often tackle themes concerning forces that isolate man from his environment and from his fellow man. Childhood memories and scenes from family life provide him with a canvas for much of his work.

Vermeersch is currently teaching creative writing at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario, and he is the Poetry Editor for Insomniac Press in Toronto.

His published works include What You Wish Wasn't True (1999), Burn (2000), The Fat Kid (2002) and Between the Walls (2005).

Publications
  • What You Wish Wasn't True

    Toronto: Wayward Armadillo Press, 1999

  • Burn

    Toronto: ECW Press, 2000

  • The I.V. Lounge Reader

    editor

    Toronto: Insomniac Press, 2001

  • The Fat Kid

    Toronto: ECW Press, 2002

  • Widows & Orphans

    Junction Books, 2003

  • Between the Walls

    Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2005

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