XV RETOUR AUX ORIGINES

Quand tu franchis le seuil où l'été repose
Dans l'assourdissement des branches, du jour
Exilé, criblant la voûte de jets roses,
L'éclat tapi des mousses dont l'odeur sourd

(Solennelles, les musiques qui se dressent
Ensevelisent de ténèbres l'intrus-
Noce, la nuit où tu t'enfonces, caresses,
Et l'appesantissement de deux corps nus)

Un rythme te prend. De loin venu. La lancinante
Chanson qui neuf mois t'a bercé.
Sous un vol de bourdons égaux que balance
Un tourbillon de mouches jamais lassé,

Le dicton têtu que le sommeil recouvre:
"Tu reviendras. Tu reviendras. Tu reviendras."
Heurt sans fin contre une oreille qui s'ouvre
D'un coeur battant dans la nuit qui les contient.

Michel Galiana (c) 1991

XV BACK TO ORIGINS

On the edge of summer's abode where sounds will be
Deadened by the branches, as is exiled daylight
Sieved to pink glittering spread on the canopy,
And the dashing fragrance of moss compelled to hide,

(Solemn is the music that suddenly rises
To shroud the intruder in its obscurity-
Wedding night is the night where you sink, a caress
Soft as the slow weighing down of two bare bodies)

A rhythm seizes you. From far it advances:
This haunting lullaby has rocked you for nine months.
And a flight of patient humble-bees balances
A tireless swarm of flies. Deep in your slumber sounds,

Stubbornly, a sentence which is always the same:
"You shall return. You shall return. You shall return."
Heard with an ear that from listening cannot refrain,
Endless heart-beats within the night they are born from.