What I think I don’t know,
What I don’t remember,
Is most often
What I write in my poems.
*
The poem:
A container
Finding its form
As little by little
It is filled.
*
I don’t know
Whether I’ll be understood,
I don’t even know
Whether I’ll understand myself.
I carry on
Weighing up the apple.
*
You’ll not be the rose,
It won’t be you,
But between you there is
What you have in common,
Knowing how to live
And knowing how to share.
—Guillevic, from Art Poétique
(tr. Maureen Smith, with Lucie Albertini Guillevic)
Loved the beginning! Starts with a container, and it tells that there is more then just that. It has great thought and detail! Love it.<br /><br /><br />Please follow<br />-Brianna
Thanks for the excellent comments. And Lyle, thanks for reminding me of Levertov's introduction. I have the book but haven't gone back to it recently; now I will!
Guillevic's poetry? "C'est magnifique!"
I've liked Guillevic's poetry for a long time. I first read him sometime in the 1970's in a Selected Poems, translated by Denise Levertov, published in a bilingual edition by New Directions. I don't think it's in print now though could be wrong.<br /><br />I like the absolute spare quality of his poems, the bare thin wire quality.<br /><br />I recall from Levertov's
The "I carry on<br />Weighing up the apple" verse is priceless!