Maria-Mercè Marçal: “Song for the road”

 

 

 

 

Translated by George Blackhurst-Patrick and Anna-Karina Yuill (University of Leeds

 

song for the road

 

Do you want to come to my boat?

There are violets aplenty!

We’ll go far, with no regret

for what we will have left behind.

 

We’ll go far, with no regret

-and we’ll be two, we’ll be three.

Come, come to our boat,

the raised sails, the open sky.

 

There will be oars for every arm

-and we’ll be four, we’ll be five!-

and our eyes, scattered stars,

will forget all limits.

 

We’ll leave in March, with the gale,

and with clouds of a shaken heart.

Yes, we’ll be twenty, we’ll be forty,

and with the moon for a flag.

 

Witches of yesterday, witches of the day,

we’ll meet them on the open sea.

It will be spread around, life

like a flowering dance.

 

Within the skin of the salty wave

we’ll be five hundred, we’ll be a thousand.

We’ll lose count at the turn.

Together, we’ll make the night ours.

 

 

 

 

cançó de fer camí

 

Vols venir a la meva barca?

Hi ha violetes, a desdir!

anirem lluny sense recança

d’allò que haurem deixat aquí.

 

Anirem lluny sense recança

-i serem dues, serem tres.

Veniu, veniu, a la nostra barca,

les veles altes, el cel obert.

 

Hi haurà rems per a tots els braços

-i serem quatre, serem cinc!-

i els nostres ulls, estels esparsos,

oblidaran tots els confins.

 

Partim pel març amb la ventada,

i amb núvols de cor trasbalsat.

Sí, serem vint, serem quaranta,

amb la lluna per estendard.

 

Bruixes d’ahir, bruixes del dia,

ens trobarem a plena mar.

Arreu s’escamparà la vida

com una dansa vegetal.

 

Dins la pell de l’ona salada

serem cinc-centes, serem mil.

Perdrem el compte a la tombada.

Juntes farem nostra la nit.

 

Foto de Rafael Vargas CC BT 2.0 (Wikipedia)