The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

TAHAR BEKRI

XVI

Open
to the redbreasts
in crimson circles
Seasons reveal to the olive tree
Their secrets
Given over to the earth new with its laughter

Water answers the call of the torrent

XVII

At the threshold

of the ultimate

race our sober horses stumble

Waystations of luck

And cantabiles backwards

The joustings lose our tawny faces

In the distance memories champ at their bit

XVIII

And we

weave

from our orphaned shelves

Dawning songs

Piercing the strange shipwreck

At the doors of the despairing sea

Water clothed with our dark spray

XIX

In the baptism

of grief

the clamor mires down our frail shores

And the thirsting eyelids of rivers