Denis Emorine

 

 

(France)

 

 

8 poems taken from

Those Words That Make Time Bleed

 

Poems to recite while waiting for war

 

For Anne-Virginie

 

1

I will untie the moment

but too late

Death will have seized my clenched fist

 

 

2

The train will take me far from you

I shall gently wave a hand

in your direction

bur you will only see a bleeding stump

tracing circles in space

 

 

3

Darkness will rob me of you face

I shall sneer to hide

my trouble wandering phantom

deprived of feelings

 

 

4

The freezing train will already be moving

and I shall cry out your name

from the depths

of my lost love

 

 

5

In vain

you will run my love

with that desperate love as your only baggage

in my eyes you will discern

incredulity

 

 

6

We shall be so numerous

in this convoy

so eager to hug each other to death

to get away from you

you

the disastrous living

 

 

7

You will not manage to climb my love

no

they will repulse you with their emaciated fingers

and I shall be able to help them if needed

in that dawn imbued with mourning.

 

 

8

I shall have lived my love

quite certainly

I shall have loved those fragments of desire

but with no hesitation

I shall pierce your flesh with

the thorn of death

my own death

to inoculate you better

with forgetfulness

 

 

Translation: Brian Cole

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

______________________________

 

Denis Emorine is the author of short stories, essays, poetry, and plays. He was born in 1956 in Paris and studied literature at the Sorbonne (University of Paris). He has an affective relationship to English because his mother was an English teacher. His father was of Russian ancestry.

His works are translated into several languages. His theatrical output has been staged in France, Canada (Quebec) and Russia. Many of his books (stories, drama, and poetry) have been published in the USA.

Writing, for Emorine, is a way of harnessing time in its incessant flight. Themes that re-occur throughout his writing include the Doppelgänger, lost or shattered identity, and mythical Venice (a place that truly fascinates him). He also has a great interest for Eastern Europe.

Denis Emorine collaborates with various other reviews and literary websites in the U.S., Europe and Japan both  in French and in English.

 

In 2004, he won first prize for his poetry at the Féile Filiochta International competition.
His poetry has been published in Pphoo (India), Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), Magnapoets (Canada), Snow Monkey, Cokefishing, Be Which Magazine, Poesia and Journal of ExperimentalFiction(USA).

 
His texts also appear on numerous e-zines such as: Anemone Sidecar, Cipher Journal, Mad Hatters’ Review, Milk, The Salt River Review, Istanbul Literary Review, Like Birds Lit,Wilderness House Literary Review, Sketchbook ,Literary World.

 

Emorine’s webpage is:  http://denis.emorine.free.fr/ul/english/accueil.htm