SPEAKING SHAETLAN

SPEAKING SHAETLAN

Here’s the trick:

pretend your mouth is full of stones.

 

Feel the dead weight pressing

        on your tongue,

 

the way this opens

your throat, turning your mouth

 

into a cave,

a wide darkness.

 

Then (and this is crucial)

let them

drop

 

still spit-warm from your lips

and watch

 

how they could shatter

on impact

 

anything

which they struck,

how they could break

 

like bone,

or bread.


 

PARLANT SHAETLAN

Voici le truc:

Faire comme si ta bouche est pleine de cailloux.

 

Sens le poids mort s’appuyer

sur ta langue,

 

La façon dont ils ouvrent

ta gorge, transformant ta bouche

 

En une grotte,

une grande obscurité. 

 

Et puis (et c’est crucial),

laisse les

tomber

 

Encore chauds de tes lèvres,

Et regardes.

 

Comment ils pourraient se briser

par l’impact

 

Tout

Ce qu’ils touchent,

Comment ils pourraient casser

 

Comme des os,

Ou du pain.

Traduction : Tanya Laurijssen


 

SHETLANDS SPREKEN

Dit is de truc:

doe alsof je mond vol stenen zit.

 

Voel het loden gewicht drukken

            op je tong,

 

en hoe dit je keel opent,

waardoor je mond

 

een grot wordt,

een grote duisternis.

Vertaling: Alex Hijmans


 

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