Apres Les Prieres. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

Apres Les Prieres. (Translation) .

Apres les prieres, apres les hymnes chantes,
Apres le commentaire incisif
Au sujet des malheurs du monde qui font les notres secondaires,
Apres la communion, apres nous etre tordus les mains,
Et apres la paix descend sur nous, en levant
Nos yeux pour regarder le sanctuaire
Et comment la lumiere le traverse comme un epee, et comment, effroyants,
De leur nombre meme, des grains de poussiere flottent, en collant-
Il y a, comme disent les medecins au sujet de quelque douleur,
Une sensation penible en se rendant compte que malgre vos prieres,
Apres avoir ecoute et apres vous etre rejouis, votre petit role
En cet essai communal d'avouer completement,
Il y a un reste obstine de vos soins
Intacte. Il y a encore le meurtre a votre coeur.

-1997.

'After the Praying'.Mark Jarman(b.1952 Kentucky) .

Apres Les Prieres. (Translation) .
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Topic(s) of this poem: prayer
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
This sonnet consists of one long, complex sentence, and one short, simple sentence. The last sentence is as devastating as it is surprising.He still has murder in his heart. I worked out the rhyme scheme: 'abbaabbacdecde'-so right.
Mark Jarman was raised in the US Christian Church, which influences his poems. Hegrew to like surfing on the beaches of California, another influence. He co-founded his own poetry magazine to promote mainly longer, narrative poetry, which I think was a very sound idea.
The sonnet is on p.999 of my anthology, 'Twentieth-Century American Poetry', ed. D. Gioia.
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success