EN // FR
LONG LIVE CLARITY!
1.
Claire, a D-day crush.
2.
D for Daisy. Marguerite or Claire?
3.
Or: défonce, déchire, écrase, morcelle, casse, fauche, bats, broie and brouille.
4.
Found on the curbside.
5.
Medics stick her in a milky sickwagon.
6.
Or stash her in the trash.
7.
Flesh, la chair, a chair…
8.
Thought it was the seat of thought.
9.
Fell out of my chair.
10.
Chair for a dame of yore.
11.
Dainty feet and shapely chair, Daisy’s yellow.
12.
Clearly not Claire crushed on the curb.
13.
Claire’s name is Claire.
14.
Sickwagon and trashbin, white and white.
15.
Can’t white out yellow with this white.
16.
Off-white.
17.
Dirty blond.
18.
An odd bird, yellow.
19.
Odd meaning curious meaning strange.
20.
Yellow of belly, belly of laugh.
21.
Yellow of teeth.
22.
Chicken yellow, no blackbird.
23.
Two blackbird eggs.
24.
Two yellow yolks to you.
25.
Needed three, but two sounds better.
26.
Don’t know who I am anymore.
27.
Signed X, Claire’s name.
28.
I’m Claire.
29.
Next to my chair.
30.
I don’t lay eggs.
31.
Can’t pondre, but can ponder.
32.
Merle is a blackbird, unpearly black.
33.
Merle is almost merde is almost perle. A pearl?
34.
Pearl hides parle: express yourself!
35.
Break out of that shell!
36.
Put your love to the test!
37.
A shell is a coquille is an eggcorn.
38.
My sequence is over, just about.
39.
Sunny-side, or belly up?
40.
Claire’s getting dizzy.
41.
Passes out.
42.
Falls down the stairs.
43.
Falls in love with her orthodontist.
44.
Braces on teeth all askew.
45.
Takes a bad apple bite.
46.
Life is, life is…
47.
Claire, spit it out!
48.
…life. La-laa, laa-la-la.
49.
Life is life.
50.
La-laa, laa-la-la.
LONG LIVE CLARITY! is a translation of VIVE LA CLARTÉ !, originally published in Montréal poet Steve Savage’s collection Mina Pam Dick, Traver Pam Dick, Nico Pam Dick et Gregoire Pam Dick (Le Quartanier, 2016), itself having evolved from a failed translation of NYC poet Pam Dick’s Delinquent (Futurepoem, 2009) and ultimately taking the form of (in his own words) “a reinvention of myself through the reinventions of Pam Dick”.
Steve Savage Steve Savage is a poet and translator who lives in Montréal. His latest books are, in French, DDA – Ducasse, Dostoïevski, Artaud (Le Quartanier, 2018) and, in English, John Smith (Baillat Studio, 2018).
Simon Brown is a poet, translator and interdisciplinary artist currently living in Québec’s Montérégie-Est region. His French and English texts have been presented via platforms such as Poetry is Dead, Vallum, Watts, Lemon Hound, Train, Le Sabord and Estuaire. As a translator, he has adapted texts by Angela Carr, Maude Pilon, Gary Barwin and Alice Burdick, among others. His collections and artist’s books have been published in Québec, Canada and France by Vanloo, Moult, Le laps, squint press, and Paper Pusher.