POETRY
I, too, dislike it.
Reading it, however, with a perfect contempt for it,
one discovers in it, after all,
a place for the genuine. Lire la suite…
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Marianne Moore et la poésie
Archives pour l'étiquette anglais
Cat People (Putting Out Fire) – Chanson de David Bowie
David Bowie, 2002 – Portrait par Masayoshi Sukita
CAT PEOPLE
(Putting Out Fire)
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Colder than the moon
It’s been so long
Feel my blood enraged
It’s just the fear of losing you
Don’t you know my name
Well, you been so long
And I’ve been putting out fire with gasoline
See these eyes so red
Red like jungle burning bright
Those who feel me near
Pull the blinds and change their minds
It’s been so long
Still this pulsing night
A plague I call a heartbeat
Just be still with me
Ya wouldn’t believe what I’ve been thru
You’ve been so long
Well it’s been so long
And I’ve been putting out the fire with gasoline
putting out the fire with gasoline
See these tears so blue
An ageless heart that can never mend
These tears can never dry
A judgement made can never bend
See these eyes so green
I can stare for a thousand years
Just be still with me
You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been thru
You’ve been so long
Well, it’s been so long
And I’ve been putting out fire with gasoline
putting out fire with gasoline
Been so long…
David Bowie (1947-2016), in l’album Let’s dance, EMI, 1983.
Musique du film Cat people (La Féline), 1982
Night air – Chanson de Jamie Woon
Le premier album du chanteur anglais Jamie Woon, « Mirrorwriting », est sorti en 2011 sous le label Cadent song.
Véritable ovni musical, il a connu un succès inattendu et suscité de l’intérêt pour le jeune virtuose à la voix éthérée.
Il paraît difficile de rattacher cet artiste à un genre, tant il mêle les influences. La presse évoque de la « néo-soul électro » ou du « dubstep » et le situe quelque part entre Brian Eno et Moby.
Cet album, aussi étonnant que réussi, surprend l’oreille. La voix et la mélodie se complètent admirablement et invitent à l’envol. Les « vibes » orientales mystiques qui émergent dans les morceaux Night air, Spiral ou Gravity semblent inspirées des origines familiales à la fois asiatiques et écossaises de l’artiste.
Paysage nocturne – Léon Spilliaert (1881– 1946), vers 1925, gouache sur papier, 64,5 x 49,5 cm
Night air
Night air has the strangest flavour
Space to breathe it time to savour
All that night air has to lend me
Til the morning make’s me angry
In the night air
I’ve acquired a kind of madness
Daylight fills my heart with sadness
And only silent skies can soothe me
Feel that night air flowing through me
In the night air
I don’t need those car-crash colours
I control the skies above us
Close my eyes to make the night fall
The comfort of a world revolving
I can hear the earth in orbit
In the night air
I’ve acquired a taste for silence
Darkness fills my heart with calmness
And each thought like a thief is driven
To steal the night air from the heavens
In the night air
Jamie Woon & John O’Kane, in Mirrorwriting, Candent Songs, Polydor, 2011.
Texte extrait de la pochette de l’album.
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The newspaper dead (Les morts des journaux) – Poème de Pierre Joris
THE NEWSPAPER DEAD. the paper picked up taken home, like going to church on sunday, long ago, as regular, as much of a rite. the double ritual of reading, of writing, take notes, see how it can enter, that world, your world, too. introïbo. no altar but what rolled off the presses, heavily inked. iconography of random death: if to pray is to give thought, intensely, then that is what I am doing right now unalienable format : too large to be cut out and glued into notebook : this dead will have to stay where it is, on the front page, tomorrow’s dustbin liner. this is a Reuters dead from Rome, young woman in heavy wintercoat, wool cap with studded rim pulled down to half-inch above eyebrows, face pressed three quarters towards me to the asphalt, ear to the ground as if listening for a distant tremor an approaching train a faroff revolution or simply for what the earth has to tell her. whatever it is, she can no longer hear it. Lire la suite…
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Across the red sky (À travers le ciel rouge) – Poème de Katherine Mansfield
Across the red sky
Across the red sky two birds flying,
Flying with drooping wings.
Silent and solitary their ominous flight.
All day the triumphant sun with yellow banners
Warred and warred with the earth, and when she yielded
Stabbed her heart, gathered her blood in a chalice,
Spilling it over the evening sky.
When the dark plumaged birds go flying, flying,
Quiet lies the earth wrapt in her mournful shadow,
Her sightless eyes turned to the red sky
And the restlessly seeking birds. Lire la suite…
The bay – chanson de Metronomy
THE BAY
You may have the money
But you’ve got to go
It’s sensible
It’s sensible
And those endless seasons
That go on and on
Incredible
But I’d sooner get out
And remember where we went last year
You said everything about it moved on your career
If you want to go
I’ll take you back one day
Because this isn’t Paris
And this isn’t London
And it’s not Berlin
And it’s not Hong Kong
Not Tokyo
If you want to go
I’ll take you back one day
It feels so good in the bay
It feels so good in the bay
You may have the body
But do you have the song ?
Let’s make this happen
Let’s make this happen
And those endless beaches
That go on and on
It’s magical
But I’d sooner get out
Remember where we went last year
You said everything about it moved on your career
If you want to go
I’ll take you back one day
Because this isn’t Paris
And this isn’t London
And it’s not Berlin
And it’s not Hong Kong
Not Tokyo
If you want to go
I’ll take you back one day
It feels so good in the bay
It feels so good in the bay
Metronomy, in album The english riviera, 2011.
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Blues – Poème de Wystan Hugh Auden
J’ai découvert récemment le poète américain d’origine britannique Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), par la lecture de Blues donnée par Daniel Lévy au château de l’Échelle à La Roche sur Foron (74) en décembre dernier.
Ces vers grinçants abordent l’oppressante question de notre immuable destin : la Mort. Je trouve ce poème plus original et moderne que Funeral blues rendu célèbre par le film 4 mariages et 1 enterrement.
Le voici, suivi de sa traduction en français :
BLUES
(for Hedli Anderson)
Ladies and gentlemen, sitting here,
Eating and drinking and warming a chair.
Feeling and thinking and drawing your breath,
Who’s sitting next to you ? It may be Death. Lire la suite…
Somebody That I Used To Know – Chanson de Gotye
Somebody That I Used To Know
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
I told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it’s an ache I still remember
You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end
Always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I’ll admit that I was glad that it was over
But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
And I don’t even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough
No you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don’t need that though
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I’d done
But I don’t wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn’t catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know
But you didn’t have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened
And that we were nothing
And I don’t even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger
And that feels so rough
No you didn’t have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records
And then change your number
I guess that I don’t need that though
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know
I used to know
That I used to know
Somebody…
Gotye (featuring Kimbra), in l’album Making Mirrors, label Eleven, 2011.
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Speak white – Poème de Michèle Lalonde
La québécoise Michèle Lalonde (née en 1937) a écrit son fameux poème engagé « Speak white » en plein contexte de révolte. Tandis que le Québec se lève pour affirmer sa culture et sa langue, elle le lit pour la première fois à Montréal, lors de La nuit de la poésie, le 27 mars 1970.
L’expression Speak white est alors une injure raciste. Elle est utilisée dans l’Ouest canadien, pour agresser ceux qui, appartenant à un groupe minoritaire, se permettent, dans un lieu public, de parler autre chose que l’anglais.
Le poème est rapidement adopté par le public, affiché tel un manifeste québécois, et considéré comme séparatiste par les autorités de l’époque.
On peut dire aujourd’hui qu’il est un des textes fondamentaux de la poésie québécoise.
SPEAK WHITE
Speak white
il est si beau de vous entendre
parler de Paradise Lost
ou du profil gracieux et anonyme qui tremble dans les sonnets de Shakespeare
nous sommes un peuple inculte et bègue
mais ne sommes pas sourds au génie d’une langue
Parlez avec l’accent de Milton et Byron et Shelley et Keats
speak white
et pardonnez-nous de n’avoir pour réponse
que les chants rauques de nos ancêtres
et le chagrin de Nelligan
Auguries of innocence (Augures d’innocence) – Poème de William Blake
Auguries of innocence est un des poèmes les plus célèbres du poète britannique William Blake (1757-1827). Les 4 premiers vers sont les plus connus, mais on trouve rarement la totalité du texte.
Le voici donc, suivi de sa traduction française par Pierre Boutang (seule traduction complète que j’ai trouvée…) :
AUGURIES OF INNOCENCE
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage.
A dove-house filled with doves and pigeons
Shudders hell through all its regions. Lire la suite…
