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You are here: Home / Poems / Poems in Translation: Here Together /  Ici Ensemble

Poems in Translation: Here Together /  Ici Ensemble

October 29, 2022 By Merwin Conservancy

Photo: Robert Becker


HERE TOGETHER

These days I can see us clinging to each other
as we are swept along by the current
I am clinging to you to keep you from
being swept away and you are clinging to me
to keep me from being swept away from you
we see the shores blurring past as we hold
each other in the rushing current
the daylight rushes unheard far above us
how long will we be swept along in the daylight
how long will we cling together in the night
and where will it carry us together

– W.S. Merwin, from his book Garden Time (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)

ICI ENSEMBLE

Ces jours-ci je le vois nous nous agrippons lʻun à l’autre
balayés que nous sommes tout du long par le courant
je m’agrippe à toi pour te garder
d’être balayée et tu t’agrippes à moi
pour me garder d’être balayé loin de toi
nous voyons les rivages passer flous tout en nous tenant
l’un l’autre dans le courant qui file
le jour file qu’on n’entend pas loin au-dessus de nous
combien longtemps encore seront nos corps balayés dans le jour
combien longtemps nous agripperons-nous ensemble dans la nuit
et où nous portera-t-il nous ensemble

– W.S. Merwin, from Un Temps au jardin, Translated by Thomas Dutoit and Cécile Roudeau. (Editions Fanlac, 2022, Aubas).


To browse through our archive of W.S. Merwin’s poetry, click here.

To support The Merwin Conservancy’s efforts to preserve a singular place that speaks to the world, please consider making an online donation.

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