Japanese Garden Poem by Michel Galiana
Japanese Garden
Dry garden. Stone and thought. And sky and quietness.
Beyond the wall a tree that twists its gnarly trunk.
In me there's no beyond. And all thinks and all weighs.
A point where certainty may reconcile with luck,
Where colour vanishes and fades into absence
Where speech unites with void which abolishes it.
I am aware of naught but a benzoin scent.
Down to the depths of dream just a murmur that drifts.
Further away from me than the stars is that line
Over which there is no ferry to carry me.
I shall be able to invent a space of mine
Or never get over this stone boundary.
A fine evocation of the 'tended space' as metaphor for unlimited space. A metaphor too, for the tended space of the poem itself? A clear translation too.
felt it sagged a little in the middle but only in comparison to a great opening and a super close. the opening lines really make the stone stony as russian formalists would say, the image of the twisting tree roots by the wall. will they uproot the wall? who is the constructor of such a thing as a wall? and for what reason?
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/3/2024 6:35:01 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Here is the French original: JARDIN MINERAL Jardin sec. Pierre et pensée. Ciel et silence. Un arbre tord son tronc au delà du mur. En toi nul au delà. Tout pèse et tout pense. Un point pour concilier le sort et le sûr Où la couleur s''évanouit en absence, Où la sentence au néant s''unit et meurt. Seul un parfum de benjoin que tu recenses. Seule aux profondeurs du songe une rumeur. Plus loin que l''astre cette ligne qui passe. Pour aller outre il n''y a plus de nocher. Tu devras te réinventer ton espace Si tu veux franchir le rocher.