Henri Meschonnic trans. by Gabriella Bedetti and Doe Boes
Summer 2025 | Poetry
Five Poems
We have eyes at the level of objects
throwing throwing the path over our shoulders
the way poetry itself does
forging the adventure of learning again
expanding the number of worlds
we think more deeply
because we no longer fear fear
the sun under one arm
what we don’t see under the other
mountains in our hand
we move ahead gaining with each loss
forever our return.
I’m packing away old trips
some are for inventing the sea
some are for the years that surround us
I store them until they call me
when my eyes are fixed on your memory
and I extend the trips through the geography of clouds
no I’m not a traveler
it’s the places that happen to us that
carry us and it’s our story we’re exploring
we are starting to be
old voyagers of the voice
our memories sleep together
and we
listen to who comes we
breathe the wind
and we’ve put time under our feet
and we have
walked walked more than one lifetime
one life one life many lives
not enough eyes to see
not enough hands to take
not enough of us to live
and we’ve discovered
births upon births
that was a moment ago
tomorrow
that's where we are
faces are transformed
so fast
that eyes consume lips
my face goes back to sleep
but I keep watch with all my skin
and on it I feel worlds
it is the crowd we make
the path we become
then the world
spun around again
around and around and around
I thought the world was the same
I thought I was the same
but my sleep is my wakefulness
like before
my words are my
face my eyes my mouth everything
that hears me and the others
hear it
so what changes
matters so little who even knows
whether anyone has seen it whether
I myself knew anything about it
right now
I am every other person
me and you him her and him
I am the new beginning
of the world
memory
is in the voice
my memory and all the others
in my voice
all the forgettings in the voice
all the paths that others
have walked I walk them again
in my voice
like the silences
who crowd together
I speak them I hear them
all these voices
are my memory
and my voice
and they come
to tell me
to keep quiet
the more I speak the more silences
Henri Meschonnic (1932–2009) was one of France’s most influential poet-theorists, reimagining the relationship between language, rhythm, and meaning. His nineteen poetry collections earned the Max Jacob International Poetry Prize, the Mallarmé Prize, and the Jean Arp Francophone Literature Prize. These poems are drawn from four books: Dans nos recommencements, Gallimard, 1976; Voyageurs de la voix, Verdier, 1985; Puisque je suis ce buisson, Arfuyen 2001; Et la terre coule, Arfuyen, 2006. They offer a compelling response to the concerns implicit in Action, Spectacle, echoing Guy Debord's critique of spectacle while affirming the possibility of authentic action through language. Where Debord warned of lived experience being replaced by images and representations, Meschonnic insists on the immediacy of voice and presence: "my words are my / face my eyes my mouth everything / that hears me and the others / hear it." His poetry refuses the passive consumption of spectacle, instead creating what he calls "old voyagers of the voice"—active participants in meaning-making who "walk again" the paths of collective memory. These poems transform readers from spectators into collaborators in the essential work of language, where "the more I speak the more silences" reveals poetry's power to make space for authentic dialogue rather than mere representation.
Don Boes is the author of Good Luck With That, Railroad Crossing, and The Eighth Continent, selected by A. R. Ammons for the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in The Louisville Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, CutBank, Zone 3, Southern Indiana Review, and The Cincinnati Review.
Gabriella Bedetti studied translation at the University of Iowa and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Her translations of Meschonnic’s essays and other writings have appeared in New Literary History, Critical Inquiry, and Diacritics. Their translations appear in Puerto del Sol, The Southern Review, World Literature Today, and elsewhere; a recent essay on Meschonnic appears in The Collidescope.