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
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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