Like Mark Lamoureux, I've been playing with writing procedures for the past week, namely homophonic translations.

Li(ght)ban

[1]
Just a present,
chaste and dead
conflicts demanded
an Orient.. Vestal
partings could not
lie nor rest

on logic proper.
Odes and eons
assisted to an articulation
of conflict.
The emergence
of delirium came
to ground, pushing regions

to a nuclear
portal.
Ground and train
readjusted bounds of
reverse guards,
allied to complexes
of frost.

[2]
Lachrymal
read the Moors,

venting dread.
21 jails let a novel
wave, delousing
risen Caliban.

Southern
counterflows objected
to conduct beetles.
Subterranean sound,
deterring

utility pores,
transported a disarming
and deriding touch,
in particular, the devil’s.

Leveled, Baal beckoned
Indian
bastions, thus a brawl

of dancing lights.
For Troy,
civilians zoned
in quietude and dour
blessing,

propagating asps
and liars.

[3]
Austere laminate,
stationary aeolian,
primed in parlance
of a forced deluder,
the debate

guaranteed flatulence.
Tread
the mosque
in hazard.

Candelabras defaced
security untamed,
emanating disorder

and apneatic lariats.
Pushed millers

depressed the sunset,
seated
in resent. Dandy,

the cordial mosque
arboresced
dense drapes
adlibbing aniseed palaces

with antic scansion.
The lured sternum
had body lace.

[4]
Unplug the marooned
& aliased dusting
operations.
Seasoned dolls
toured the devil,
marooned pluralist,

for lampooning intensity.
Donors incrusted paragon-
fluctuating dances,
and jousting leprechauns.
Minute notions poured
the essential parameters,

knees saving fixed
limited proteins. Avalon
cleared a portal,
paroling pious Pluto
for annotating luscious
cocoons on an offending
grand evergreen.

Nether visages poured
the moment.

[5]
Charcoal had receded.
A void dispelled sensibility,
seeing cobbled Caliban
venting dread.

Doubting an arsenal
had body lace,

deposits of cormorant
atoned disdain.
Launching rockets doused
routes relaying pelicans.

A lacier considered coming,
declining decorum
& caution. Departments

viewed cement parlay
their body lace, and frigates
ate bombardments.

[6]
Lore quelled nouns
past blessed overtures
during bombardments,

lest populations unforced
evictions. Conditions
preceded bumpier
sounds the devil dished

at a disused
principled theater, dealing
gear cups to the rest
of the dupes.

Equipment dramatized cement,
detouring agencies
specialized in one deviant
lance. Landing on a pelt,

urgent alloys poured
on populations ministered
by the lightban.

Comments

Mark Lamoureux said…
This is great. What is it a translation from? Sort of a banal, question, I know, but I find myself trying to guess what language it's from. Maybe it's better to guess.

The translation magazine CIRCUMFERENCE has a great section of homophonic translation each issue.
François Luong said…
Mark,

Glad you liked it. Everything is from French so far. The original texts are various paragraph from the newspaper Le Monde. I am thinking about throwing in Die Welt for good measure.

I really like Circumference for the most part. The latest issue I have is the one with work by Jennifer Grotz on Patrice de la Tour Du Pin and Pierre Joris on Paul Celan. I remember reading one translation (from French) that really irritated me. But nice issue overall.

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