Marcher sur la terre
Amina Saïd

en tout lieu
régnaient la nuit le rêve
en sa première forme

du ciel déraciné
naquirent le soleil et la lune
l’ombre la lumière
et la sève

et ce désir de créer
entre feu et larmes

le ciel déraciné
nous pûmes toi et moi
marcher sur la terre

le mot juste
frappe au coeur du coeur

l’horizon est patient
pour les marcheurs immobiles
battant leur démesure

nous avons déserté les villes
pour habiter l’espace
du seul cri

cercle de pierres nues
quelqu’un raconte
nos fables tristes

nous rallumons les braises
dans l’eau noire
brandissons nos mains coupés
vers l’asile du ciel

de quel pays venez-vous
demande-t-on
et où naîtront vos enfants

où serez-vous
lorsque sous le sourire
sanglant des nuages
ils checheront un sein de chair

tous les chemins
ramènent au même lieu
le voyage est cheval d’illusion

les braises du monde
noircissent son pas démesuré

elles brûlent
nos langues inquiètes

en lui-même
le poème se cherche

il est cette eau noire
qui nous éblouit

lorsque nous lui restituons
une lointaine lueur d’étoile

la nuit se pose sur le jour
de tous nos yeux
nous regardons la vie

l’amour nous invente
et parle le langage des sens

auréole de silence
en avant de nos lèvres

nous porte l’écho
d’un pays d’une enfance

cérémonie de la mémoire

d’une mer inconnue
nous rejoignons la rive

les vagues séparées
dissimulent leur tumulte

et toujours nous contiendrons
la nuit qui tombe en nous
comme un clou noir
dans la chair de la chair

cerné de toute part
le jour s’use à notre insu

il sculpte un masque unique
à notre visage secret


mon ombre reconnaît la tienne
ton ombre reconnaît la mienne

leurs doigts insoumis
fouillent les ténèbres

les regards échangés
ne peuvent appartenir qu’à la nuit

ombres gardiennes
à l’affût des miroirs

tels des oiseaux acerbes
elles déploient des ailes froissées

leur part nue effleure à peine
leur double nature


l’oiseau précurseur
symbole de ce qui devra être
assemble l’eau la terre
et le feu

un ange dans le jardin

mon père dit
je suis dans la banlieu de la mort
et le silence qui suit
n’arrête pas le temps

dans sa langue d’images
l’ange sait autrement

du coeur de l’obscur
il peut suivre les métamorphoses
de la lumière

et sa forme visible
continue d’exprimer
les nuages


qui de la lumière ou de l’astre
a tenu la nuit en haleine

tandis que nous volions les mots
à la joie et à son contraire

ainsi s’arrachent le jour à la nuit
et l’ombre à nos yeux

ils s’ouvrent une fois encore
renouvelant le miracle
saccagé

jeudi ou mercredi
à l’heure du crépuscule
un message à la main
un inconnu frappera à la porte

il jouera un moment
à éclabousser d’encre
la rose sur le bouvard

les taches formeront d’autres taches
(elles cultivent le cercle)
un visage sous la lampe
battra des cils

une femme prendra corps
celle que tu aimes
toujours la même toujours
différente
il y aurait ce corps de lumière
pour apprendre comment tenir
la mort à distance

de la course solaire
et du feu intouchable
naîtraient de nouveaux signes

un miroir qui se souviendrait
retrouverait en moi
ce que moi même ignore

sur la pierre heureuse
les jours s’emmêleraient

ce ne serait plus un visage
que j’aurais à chercher
une nouvelle fois
nous sommes encerclés de feu

l’astre déraciné
nous montre son clairvoyant visage

tel un feu
nourri d’un autre feu

une nouvelle fois quelque chose
bat en nous d’un désir de vie

quelque chose meurt en nous
et se couche au profonde d’une tombe

une nouvelle fois l’aube
en sa verité
nous coupe la parole

le monde autour de nous
épuise sa définition
Walking the Earth
Translation by: Peter Thompson

all around
night and dream reigned
in primal form

from an uprooted sky
sun and moon were born
shadow light
and sap

and this desire to create
amid fire and tears

the uprooted sky
we were able you and I
to walk the earth

the mot juste
strikes in the heart of hearts

the horizon is patient
for stilled walkers
keeping to the beat of their excesses

we abandoned villages
to settle in the space
of a lone cry

a circle of bare stones
someone recites
our sad fables

we rekindle our embers
in black water
brandish our severed hands
at the sky

what country are you from
someone asks
and where will your children be born

where will you be
when under the clouds’
bloody smile
they fumble for a fleshy breast

all paths
lead to the same place
journey is illusion’s horseback

the world’s embers
blacken its wanton footstep

they burn
our anxious tongues

within its form
the poem seeks itself

it’s this black water
that dazzles us

when we give it back
the far glimmer of a star

night settles over the day
we gaze full-eyed
upon life

love invents us
and speaks the senses’ language

aureole of silence
before our lips

bringing us the echo
of a childhood land

the memory ceremony

we regain the shore
of an unknown sea

waves in succession
dissemble the heaving

and we will gather always
the night falling within us
like a black nail
into flesh’s very flesh

ringed on every side
the day wears down unknown to us

it sculpts on our secret face
a singular mask

my shadow recognizes yours
your shadow recognizes mine

their rebel fingers
rifle the dark

looks exchanged
can only belong to night

guardian shadows
lying in wait for mirrors

like scolding birds
they unfurl rumpled wings

their formal shares barely touch
on their doubled nature

the precursor bird
symbol of what is to be
brings together water earth
and fire

an angel in the garden

my father says
I’m in the suburbs of death
and the silence that follows
cannot still time

in his image-language
the angel knows different

from the heart of the obscure
he follows the metamorphoses
of light

and his visible form
continues to express
the clouds

whoever has kept the night in suspense
for light or for a star

while we were stealing words
from joy and its opposite

in this way day is torn from night
and shadow from our eyes

they open yet again
renewing the pillaged
miracle

thursday or wednesday
at the twilight hour
a stranger
message in hand
will knock at the door

he will dally a moment
splattering ink
on the blotter’s rose

the stains will form other stains
(cultivating a circle)
a face under the lamp
will rapidly blink

a woman’s body will emerge
the one you love
always the same one always
different

there might be this body of light
for learning how to keep
death at a distance

out of the sun’s path
and the untouchable fire
new signs would be born

a mirror remembering itself
would rediscover in me
what even I don’t know

spread on the laughing rock
the days would blend together

and no face out there
for me to go seeking

once again
we’re surrounded by fire

the uprooted star
turns its clairvoyant face to us

like a fire
nourished by another fire

this new moment
something pulses in us with life desire

something dies in us
and stretches in the depths of a tomb

this new moment the dawn
in all its truth
takes our breath away

the world around us
exhausts its definition

Author Notes

Amina Saïd
Francophone poet, essayist, short story writer, and translator
Amina Saïd was born in Tunis to a Tunisian father and a French mother. Amina Saïd moved to Paris in 1979 and has lived there ever since. Her numerous poetry collections include Paysages, Nuit Friable (1980), Métamorphose de l’île et de la Vague (1985), and Marcher sur la Terre (1994).

Sources

Saïd, Amina. Marcher Sur La Terre: Poèmes. Editions de la Différence, 1994.

Saïd, Amina, et al. Walking the Earth. 1st english, Contra Mundum Press, 2024.

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Fanni is Radnóti's wife
Located near the Tang capital city of Chang’an, site of the modern city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, in central China.
Soldiers of that time commonly wore a white head cloth, similar to what is still worn by some peasants in China today.  The implication is that the conscripts were so young that they didn’t know how to wrap their head cloths, and needed help from elders.
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
The area of Guanxi, meaning “west of the passes”, refers to the area around the capital city of Chang’an.
This is an alternative name for a province in western China, now known as Qinghai, which literally means “blue sea”.  Kokonor Lake, located in Qinghai, is the largest saline lake in China.  
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
Oulart Hollow was the site of a famous victory of the Irish rebels over British troops, which took place on May 27, 1798. The rebels killed nearly all the British attackers in this battle. (Source: Maxwell, W. H. History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798. H. H. Bohn, London 1854, pp 92-93, at archive.org)
The phrase "United Men" is elaborated upon in the Notes section below.

Ghetto


An Italian word meaning “foundry.” It originally referred to a part of the city of Venice where the Jews of that city were forced to live; the area was called “the ghetto” because there was a foundry nearby. The term eventually came to refer to any part of a city in which a minority group is forced to live as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure. Because of the restrictions placed upon them, ghetto residents are often impoverished.

"You’re five nine, I am do-uble two"


A reference to the year 1959 and the year 2020.

"The Currency"


Meaning US dollars - this is drawing attention to the fact that Cuba is effectively dollarized.

"Sixty years with the dom-ino stuck"


This sentence is a reference to the Cold War notion that countries would turn Communist one after the other - like dominos. Cuba was the first domino, but it got stuck - no one else followed through into communism.

رحلنا


رحلنا, or "rahalna," means "we have left."

Habibi


Habibi means "my love."

Ra7eel


Ra7eel, or "raheel," means "departure."

3awda


3awda, or "awda," means "returning."

أهلاً


أهلاً, or "ahalan," means "welcome."

a5 ya baba


a5 ya baba, pronounced "akh ya baba," means "Oh my father."

golpe


Treece translates "golpe" as "beating", which is correct, however misses the secondary meaning of the word: "coup".

Carlos


The “Carlos” referred to in the poem is most likely Carlos Bolsonaro, a politician from Rio de Janeiro and the second son of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president. His and his father’s involvement in Marielle’s murder has been questioned and investigated.