an experimental translation of Marie-Andrée Gill
nous nous baignons1 dans le mal de vivre2 de l’asphalte chaud3en attendant de trouver la parole habitable4ou de gagner quelque chose au gratteux5
1 we skinny dip in mal de vivre / we shed our skins& plunge in nus / the waters closeabove our heads / we stew / we wallow
2 deep in dread / we submerge in gall / we allbut founder / we fall malades / we wadeinto the noxious bloom
3 of a newly paved lot / we bathe in freshtar / asphalt our mer, we peerout where it meets the sky
4 we shade our eyes & scanfor safe location / safelocution / unbrokenword / we hold out for a languagelike landfall
5 we hold out for a windfall / a scratch-offwin / we tread pavement like water, awaitingla parole habitable / a languageto shelter within
The lines in French are excerpted from Marie-Andrée Gill’s Frayer (La Peuplade, 2015), which examines the effects of settler colonialism on her Pekuakamiulnuatsh community’s lands and language. Frayer’s English edition, Spawn, translated by Kristen Renee Miller, was published in 2020 by Book*hug Press.
Kristen Renee MillerKristen Renee Miller is the director and editor-in-chief at Sarabande Books. A poet and translator, she is a 2023 NEA Fellow and the translator of two books from the French by Ilnu Nation poet Marie-Andrée Gill.