Apr├¿s avoir ces cent quarante ├®crits,
je suis ├®puis├® et me consid├¿re
une langue craqu├®e l├®chante, dedans, un puits
empli dÔÇÖune boue visqueuse, dÔÇÖune cro├╗te grossi├¿re.
Il en reste quinze encore, coinc├®s, cach├®s:
des crapauds rotants que les murs moussus
font r├®sonner. Enfin, bloqu├®e, f├óch├®e,
la langue, toute sèche et vulgaire devenue,
va bifurquer, et d├®sormais siffler.
Chaque midi, pour un instant, le soleil
├®claire cette vie grimpante – viens regarder!
Voil├á en bas, fr├®tillante et vermeille,
la langue, les crapauds fugitifs, la chasse
avant que lÔÇÖombre couvre la disgr├óce.
“Sonnet 141” is the author’s one and only French sonnet. He explains: “I speak decidedly subfluent and at present very rusty French. Briefly, the Sonnets as a whole were envisaged as a cycle of 155 sonnets, i.e. beating Shakespeare by one. Thus the fifteen toads represent the fifteen remaining sonnets (i.e. 155-140) which the poet’s bifurcated tongue has to lick up from the filthy cultural well.” The poem was originally published in the French Literary Review. Its English translation is “XVII” below.
From: Sonnets, Mostly Bristolian
Published in: The Hypertexts