always the mother XXVII (one cry)

Sylvia Plath interviews writer Elizabeth Bowen, 1953

[ ... ]

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons




[ … ]

Un seul cri et je saute hors du lit, trébuche, bovine et florale
Dans ma chemise de nuit victorienne.
Tu ouvres une bouche aussi nette qu’une gueule de chat. La vitre

Pâlit et ravale ses étoiles. Alors tu essaies
Ta poignée de notes;
Les voyelles lumineuses s’élèvent comme des ballons.





(Sylvia Plath, uit: Morning song, Chant du matin, traduction de Valérie Rouzeau)

Soulier III (lived like a foot)

"You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe / In which I have lived like a foot / For thirty years, poor and white, / Barely daring to breathe or Achoo. // Daddy, I have had to kill you .."

(Sylvia Plath, Daddy)