La Telephone. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

La Telephone. (Translation) .

Bien que nous ayons commence a hair cette ligne
nous faisons un coup de telephone; des soirs quand nous avons
desseche le puits de la conversation, nous attendons le bon moment
des petits silences interurbains de long-distances
et nous nous pretons comme des auditeurs
aux voix lavees de temps en temps
a travers l'air d'au milieu.

Souvent, donc, plus que je ne peux souffrir,
en te manquant m'apporte ce desir
au moins d'entendre et d'etre entendue
et puis, il y a quelque chose a dire
pour ceci. Car ceci devient une toile,
devient un cheveu, une force, un fil,
un bandrier entre nous-memes, en toute justice,
toi en ma place d'ici, moi en ta place de la.

-' Phone'.Colette Bryce.From 'Poems of the Decade 1992-2001', ed. by William Sieghart, p.29.

Saturday, April 1, 2017
Topic(s) of this poem: car,justice
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
In the first stanza she writes about the old-fashioned 'party line', in which you dialled the operator who put you through to the other person-but other people on the 'party line' could listen in to your converstion. In my childhood this is just what we had at home.
The second stanza talks about her missing her boyfriend: the telephone becomes a link between him and her, and possibly others listening in. The last line I find concise and very well expressed:
' you in my hereness, me in your thereness'.
Of course all the technology she uses is long-obsolete, replaced by landline phones, cordless phones, mobile phones, smartphones. Because this poem relates to my life, I like it.
Related song, 'Ring Ring', by Abba, (1980) .
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
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