"Nature, lull him warmly: he is cold."
More Perihelion:
Bob Sward's Writer's Friendship Series
translated from the French by Len Sousa
The Valley Sleeper
It’s a green hollow where a river sings
A young soldier, mouth open, head bare,
Feet in the gladiolas, he sleeps. Smiling
Sweet smells never quiver his nostrils;
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Wildly tangling on the grass in silver
Tatters; where the sun, above a proud mountain
Shines: it’s a tiny valley foaming with light.
And nape bathing in the blue watercress
Sleeps; outstretched on the grass, under the sky,
Pale in his green bed where daylight rains.
Like a sick child would, he’s having a nap:
Nature, lull him warmly: he is cold.
He sleeps in the sun, hand on his chest,
Calm. There’re two red holes in his right side.
Len Sousa is a 22-year-old writer at work on a series of new Rimbaud translations. He recently received his BFA from Emerson College studying under poets Jonathan Aaron and Bill Knott. His poetry has appeared in issues of The Alembic, Gangsters In Concrete ,The Emerson Review, and Gauge Magazine. This is his first published translation.