Une Sirene. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker
Une Sirene. (Translation) .
Quelqu'un qui te regardait dans l'eau penserait: ' Une sirene! '
La gagnante de la course de natation de femmes, tu as l'air
etrange sur l'ecran de ma vie inglorieuse.
Lorsque tu souris en triomphe je noue une ficelle,
une chose mince et incassable, a ton orteil
mais tu marchesdevant moi sans me remarquer.
Tes amis, jeunes comme toi-meme, se pressent autour
et font un bruit au bar; et alors
juste une minute de duree une ombre-nuage, une ombre
serieuse et maternelle tressaillit en bas de tes
sourcils a ton beau menton fier
et joint ton soleil levant a mon propre soleil couchant.
-' A Siren'.Derek Mahon b.1941.
The poem is about youth and age. He is smitten by a glamorous young woman who wins a swimming race, then walks past without noticing him. In the bar, she is surrounded by loud friends, but she apparently acknowledges him with a shadow on her eyebrows and chin. Her sun is rising: his sun is setting.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/10/2024 10:27:12 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Derek Mahon has written this poem in 1941 and this has valuable expression within. Your friends, young as you are, and crowd around conveys this. Beautiful eyebrows motivate mind. Someone looking at you in the water would think, 'A siren! What an amazing poem this is really! Brilliant translation makes this worthy. An interesting sharing is done here.10
I am pleased that you like Derek Mahon's lyric poem. I rate him highly in modern poetry. The young woman must be attractive for people to think, 'A siren'. Yet there is a gulf between her and the poet, because of the age difference, generation gap. This is so common in life, I find.