Skip to main content
Outdated Browser

For the best experience using our website, we recommend upgrading your browser to a newer version or switching to a supported browser.

More Information

Poetry

The Fountain

By Aïcha Arnaout
Translated from French by Cécile Oumhani

When the inscrutable
embraces sluggish time
spreading its invisible light between two suspended shores
rags of screams, a flight of black cloth
spread a hollow vertigo
down the native alley

Sanctuaries in ruins, fathomless crypts,
sepulchres with no remains merge
above a beaded sheet
wrapped around the earth’s flank

The eye of silence peers
and sinks into the snowed-up scene
tears it up like a lightning-blade
digs the earth to the bone
a grave for the wandering woman

Copyright Aïcha Arnaout. Translation copyright 2011 by Cécile Oumhani. All rights reserved.

English French (Original)

When the inscrutable
embraces sluggish time
spreading its invisible light between two suspended shores
rags of screams, a flight of black cloth
spread a hollow vertigo
down the native alley

Sanctuaries in ruins, fathomless crypts,
sepulchres with no remains merge
above a beaded sheet
wrapped around the earth’s flank

The eye of silence peers
and sinks into the snowed-up scene
tears it up like a lightning-blade
digs the earth to the bone
a grave for the wandering woman

La Fontaine

Alors que l’hermétique
épouse la lenteur du temps
diffusant son invisible lueur entre deux rives suspendues
quelques lambeaux de cris, une envolée d’étoffe noire sèment le vertige creux
et parcourent l’impasse d’origine

Sanctuaires démolis, cryptes sans fond,
sépulcres sans dépouilles se confondent
au-dessous d’une nappe emperlée
couvrant le flanc de la terre

L’œil du silence scrute
puis s’enfonce dans la scène enneigée
la déchire telle une lame d’éclair  
et creuse jusqu’à l’os de la terre
une tombe pour l’errante.

Read Next

august-2017-the-new-french-kader-attia-modern-architecture-genealogy