A Translation in "Crystal Castles" (Raphus Press)

I am responsible for a translation of a poem of Tristan Corbière that appeared in Raphus Press' Crystal Castles in 2020. This was a limited edition collection of fiction around the theme of intoxication. 

Also appearing were Roman Lasalle, Rhys Hughes, Fernando Naporano, Justin Isis, Fábio Waki, Jonathan Wood, Chris Mikul, D. P. Watt, Thomas Phillips, Fernando Klabin and Stephan Friedman.

I reproduce it here: 

The Poet’s Pipe (La Pipe d’un Poete)

 

I’m the pipe the poet smokes 

The tit he sucks,

I’m the one who sedates his beastly nature.

He summons ragged monsters

To bash him in the face, 

So I smoke... until he no longer sees

          The spiders on the ceiling.

I make for him a sky, clouds, 

The sea, the desert, mirages;

He lets his dead eye wander there...

And when they fall too heavy—thoughts of nude bodies— 

And he thinks he sees a shadow he knows,

I’m the one who feels the bite on my stem.

Another volute of smoke releases

His Soul, his shackles, his life!

And I feel myself dying away. He sleeps—

—Sleeping still, the beast is calmed,

And your dreams go to the end of the line

Poor bastard! If it’s true

That everything is smoke then smoke is everything...