Saturday, February 18, 2017

Béatrice Machet # 10 After Series (after G.Stein 4)




 I really need to know if this "game" I like to play makes sense to you! Is it of any interest?


# 10  for the “After … Series”

inspired by G.Stein’s History or Messages from History


                                                                                                  Apart from
eating                                                                                        what can she do...
She cannot eat a banana because she fears sluggishness.
What she eats should be firm, crispy, and crunchy.
The pleasure of eating here is the reason                                 why they gather as they do.
And time passes by and forks and knives point at the
 imaginary numbers of a clock integrated into their
digestive system of life.
They say           life                                                                   comes first.
She says youth is remarkable and nothing can surpass this     nearly perfection
except for boredom. And this time she has to accept and
confess she is tired, even though relatively young enough,
with the process of eating and digesting what seems to
come first. Life itself.
                                                                                                  The scene
now shows a woodstove. Sparks … as if under a storm
of hail. Same noise when you shut your eyes. Please shut
your eyes. What are you smelling? A hint of basil, onion,
garlic.... what else ... What else can she do, think, she's so
busy with digesting meaning. What's mean. What it means.
Which means with... Bouncing on these three she manages
to sing.
Songs are beverages. They quench some thirsts. They go
through mouths, stomachs, intestines like liquids ...
Whether alcohol in them or not. So now she knows.
What she can do is obvious: cooking a music meal. She
can do it. She will do it. By any means.                                    For her and for them.




                                                                                                    A part
manger                                                                                        que peut-elle faire?
Elle ne peut pas manger de banane parce qu’elle craint la
mollesse. Ce qu’elle mange doit être ferme, croustillant.
Le plaisir de manger est la raison pour laquelle                         ils se rassemblent ici.
Et le temps passe et couteaux et fourchettes pointent devant
les nombres imaginaires d'une horloge intégrée dans leur 
système digestif de la vie.
Ils disent           la vie                                                                 vient en premier.
Elle dit la jeunesse est remarquable et rien ne surpasse cette    presque perfection
sauf l’ennui. Et cette fois elle doit accepter et même
confesser, bien qu’encore relativement jeune, elle est
lasse du procédé de manger et de digérer ce qui semble
venir en premier. La vie elle-même.
                                                                                                    La scène
maintenant montre un poêle à bois. Des étincelles comme si
sous un orage de grêle. Le même bruit quand vous fermez
les yeux. S’il vous plait fermez les yeux. Que sentez-vous ?
Un soupçon de basilic, oignon, ail… quoi d’autre…Que
peut-elle faire d’autre, penser, elle est si occupée avec le
sens de digérer. Qu’est-ce qui est sensé. Est-ce que cela a
un sens. Avec quels sens ? Rebondissant sur ces trois elle
parvient à chanter.
Les chants sont des boissons. Ils étanchent les soifs. Ils vont
par les bouches, estomacs, intestins comme des liquides…
Avec de l’alcool ou pas dedans. Maintenant elle sait. Ce
qu’elle peut faire est évident: cuisiner un repas musical.
Elle peut le faire. Elle le fera. Dans tous les sens.                       Pour elle et pour eux.

5 comments:

  1. I like this, I would only wonder at the translation 'relatively young enough', the enough seems tautology to me. But I like to read you, of course.

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  2. Thanks kerri to point this out, it has escaped my viligance. I'll erase the unneeded enough!

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  3. I like the surrealist play you set up here, with the slight shift of words and context, meanings change and fresh insight gained. I chuckled at 'except for boredom' imagining the wryness of Stein
    I look forward more.

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  4. I don’t know how I feel about 'music meal' - almost too obvious after such musicality. Otherwise it seems quite perfect to me. I really like the dialogue between the bold parts and the not bold - as if the bold were an echo from the reader - and the whole piece a conversation: strophe and antistrophe. "Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches."

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  5. Thanks Magdalena, this piece of advice is precious and I'm working on replacing the musical meal ... the menu is not fixed yet but some casserole of something for sure!

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