selon le sentiment et le silence
je surgis à la surface savante des siècles
le soir ce sont des scènes avec mes semblables
de salines symphonies de salive avec les mots de
Sappho
des saisons à saveur de sapotille et de saké,
le monde s’incline par saccades je soupire
rien ne sombre dans mon souvenir :
ni le soi sagittaire
ni les soudaines séquences de séduction
[Q→S]2
sometimes seeking a sympathetic silence
I dream in Sechura of the Xolotl (masc. noun, Nahuatl word: Aztec god of fire and bad luck)
of his skeleton and how at sunset he shoves the sun
into the sea, I suck the seeds
of the salmonberry, all the scarlet scrutinies
the sextets of what-will-they-say, my sweet,
I stand sentry
The “Q” entry in English is a translation of the “S” entry in French, and the “S” entry in English is a translation of the “Q” entry in French. See discussion of this switch in the translator’s introduction and notes.
Article Author Biography
Ross Belot is a poet translator from Hamilton Ontario. His collaborative translation of Paul Éluard's La Vie immédiate was a finalist for the 2026 Stephen Mitchell Prize for Excellence in Translation. Poems from that collection have been published widely including The Denver Quarterly, World Poetry Review and peer reviewed in Delos. His poetry has been a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize and the Montreal International Poetry Prize. He is a co-editor of The Transformation Review