Beauté dont saveur est l’écho,
Aurore à gueule de tenailles,
Amants qu’on veut désassembler,
Femme qui portez tablier,
Ongle qui grattez la muraille,
Désertez ! désertez !
*
The guard’s advice
Fruit spurting under the knife’s cut,
Beauty savoured best when echoed,
Dawn that bites like a vice,
Lovers whom men seek to separate,
Woman wearing an apron,
Fingernail scratching the wall:
You must all desert! Desert!
***
René Char (1907-1988) – Les Matinaux (Poésie/Gallimard, 1969) – The Dawn Breakers (Bloodaxe Books, 1992) – Translated by Michael Worton.