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COMMÉMORATION PAR MAYA ANGELOU<br />

Florence Xia*<br />

French Program<br />

Department of Modern Languages<br />

Commémoration<br />

Par Maya Angelou<br />

Remembrance<br />

By Maya Angelou<br />

Pour Paul<br />

For Paul<br />

Tes mains<br />

légères, taquinant les abeilles<br />

en ruche dans mes cheveux, tu souris à<br />

la pente de ma joue. De temps à<br />

autre, tu te presses sur moi,<br />

rayonnant, jaillissant<br />

d’empressement, le mystère viole<br />

ma raison.<br />

Your hands easy<br />

weight, teasing the bees<br />

hived in my hair, your smile at the<br />

slope of my cheek. On the<br />

occasion, you press<br />

above me, glowing, spouting<br />

readiness, mystery rapes<br />

my reason<br />

Quand tu te seras retiré<br />

ainsi que la magie, quand<br />

seulement l’odeur de ton<br />

amour s’attardera entre<br />

mes seins, alors, seulement<br />

alors, pourrai-je consommer goulûment<br />

ta présence.<br />

When you have withdrawn<br />

your self and the magic, when<br />

only the smell of your<br />

love lingers between<br />

my breasts, then, only<br />

then, can I greedily consume<br />

your presence.<br />

* This translation of Maya Angelou’s poem into French was prepared for Professor Pascale-Anne Brault’s course, FCH 324 Translation III, in fall quarter 2015.<br />

This poem was chosen in part because of the many challenges it presented for translation. To convey the unique cadence and powerful imagery of the original<br />

required that the translator find equivalencies in French that evoked both the halting musicality of the English and the graphic character of the topic.<br />

52 CREATING KNOWLEDGE

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