Long Soleil Poems

Translation with commentary of an archetypal Wild West Classic : " Summer Wine "

(I'd wage my bottom diamond dime future generations will re-discover and treasure this true American classic like only a few others of...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s Courbet: Elegy 8 by T. Wignesan

Blanches oeuvres ouvertes
résident dans les jours
la surface du banc de travail est noire
les géraniums-lierres
les fougères et les adragans
accumulent leurs oeuvres et jours:
La toile noire de Courbet
un...

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I discovered a poem longing in my heart, it is for you, 
And it is about you, my sweetheart. This poem resembles you.
I wrote it this morning, before the arrival of the auroral shadow.
Her words...

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You’ll be a man tomorrow, child, yes,
If you respect animals and pristine nature,
If you don’t kill elephants for ivory,
If you don’t kill the whales for soap,

You’ll be a man if you can stop time
If you...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s TIME SIGHT UNSEEN - Part Four by T. Wignesan


"Instead of an item in a school of rhetoric, the poem could have variety of articulations, continuity and discontinuity, sentence and parataxis,...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s 1922 Section 1 by T. Wignesan

for David Attoe

Notre devise pourrait être: ‘que nous nous ne soyons pas envoûtés’
Wittgenstein in Zettel

laissez pendre   la graisse   sans cou
où la tête...

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In a phalanx of four: Peter, Lisa, Dave, and I, descended a waterfall of marble stairs - pilgrims to another time - as if we’d punched through a wormhole.

It’s a five-star bash at the palace...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s HOMAGE TO PAUL ELUARD by T. Wignesan

(Note: Here, I retain EM’s translations into English from Paul Eluard’s poems and his source language quotations from “this vital spirits…” onwards, for, according...

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 Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private - 1 by T. Wignesan

                      ...

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Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes de Jacques PREVERT (1900-77) 
Translated by T. Wignesan 

(Note: As far as I can make out, this poem is at the heart of all versions of « The Autumn Leaves "...

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She wades in until the water reaches her waist,
looks out and continues into the endless sea.
Her imagined long gown floats behind her.

Her little girl shoulder blades 
become hidden beneath the water.
Each time she raises her...

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Klacatoo – Translation of Kevin Gilbert ‘s « Klacatoo » by T. Wignesan

On nous avait coincé sur la rive de Lachlan
un endroit qui s’appelle Klacatoo
là où nous rassemblions au coucher du soleil
quand nous entendions le...

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Trees, big or small, soothe poets,
Big or small, they are advisors, artists
Who soothe the storms of the lonely souls,
They stand out like magicians
Before the subtle skies,

Trees soothe poets, big or small,
They retain birds and their...

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I can’t stop thinking,
That the earth is round, round
Like African women,
That the seagulls are white,
That dogs are crazy,
They bark at poets, writers,

I can’t stop thinking,
That the sun is a guitar
Who plays in the summer, in...

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it's Fashion Week in New York City and the people just can't wait
to see the lastest trends that the designers will demonstrate
to all the fashionistas with their obssession to impress
tis the season to be a...

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Où allons nous? Translation of Oodgeroo  Noonuccal’s “Where are we going” by T. Wignesan

Ils sont venus dans une petite ville
Une bande à moitié nue soumise silencieuse
Tout ce qui restait de leur tribu.
Ils sont venus...

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Translation of Eric Mottram’s A Faithful Private - 3 Dolores Huerta by T. Wignesan

3. Dolores Huerta

aucun coq n’y annonce la reveille:
les étudiants et les dirigeants des travailleurs 
font partie du piquet de grève contre les...

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Unbelievable: since last we meet, something spectacular has transpired.
Ladies and gentlemen we have a new Worlds Heavyweight Champion!
In unbelievable fashion: with no vendettas, just pure Sports Wrestling.
But the outcome will have even the the most...

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Clouds can be remarkably similar
to the friends lovers and passer-bys
that filter through our daily lives
like unexpected weekend guests
who arrive exactly as they planned
or close relatives who fail to appear
simply cancelling at the last minute
as if...

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The blue hour takes root ...

There is the dark wing of the steamer,
Which takes the open sea, and carries away its regrets,
Tiny passengers, waving handkerchiefs
And the seagulls passing and passing again.
Heavy rusty chains, in heaps...

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The sun plunged
In the space of silence,
The summer has been extended
In a slow wandering ...

The orb has been drunk,
Gradually, by fringes.
> We did not hear anything,
From the fall of the angel ...

The horizon has folded...

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gaslight me the movie
of my underdeveloped consciousness 
give me a hand 
take thine arm
without the silent treatment 
and a thank you 
for the mind fook
hoovering is not allowed  

this is not magic but it...

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Both of us vacationed at the same resort.
Had rum vis-a-vis. Mediocre story.
One night you offered me and friend to escort
To music bar du jour. I won't be sorry.

We met when for both of us life...

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I would stay for hours,
Waiting for a nice bee to land,
On the small purple flowers of a fuchsia, or heather,
I would wait for hours,
As if the future of the planet depended on it,
I would stay...

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No one at home on Valentine’s Day, our lips were already locked.
Getting used to being alone, our plans would have left you shocked.
Back from vacation, the Basement Trolls came strolling in, our night was lost.
But...

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