Elend

Lorsque jarrivai sur la rive du fleuve,
Je vis les cygnes morts et
Je sus que nous approchions des Enfers
A droite une source, pr?s delle un cypr?s blanc.
J?coutai le murmure du temps
Et arrachai ? lespace un instant
Le lieu do? ne sourd nulle vie.
Le fleuve est un lac, une mer immobile
Dont mes pens?es se font l?cume
Je suis la mer sur laquelle je vogue
Je suis loc?an et le ciel ?toil?
Je suis la mer que jab?me.
Mes veines-un torrent,
Mes membres-une for?t,
Ma chair-une ?corce
Qui cache le coeur sombre de la mort.
Le temple est d?truit et le dieu ne parle plus.
Alors je fus pris de vertige.
Je cherchais tes restes et rassemblais tes membres,
Lorsque les pleureuses furent prises de terreur ? la vue des serpents,
Innombrables,
Qui encerclaient ton torse
Comme des ramaux-ils vivaient dune vie autre que la leur.
Jen recueillis un au creux de la main et lui montrait le soleil.
Il se figea et resplendit dor.
D?tranges ?chos nous parvenaient des Enfers
Je fis offrande ? Pers?phone de cette veine pleine dun sang si noble
Et jentendis le chant de la terre.
Elle maccueillit dans le s?jour des Ombres.
[English translation:]
When I reached the bank of the river,
I saw the dead swans and
I knew that we were approaching the infernal regions.
A well on the right, a white cypress nearby.
I listened to the whispers of time
and for one moment I tore from space
the sphere from which no life emanates.
The river is a lake,
a motionless sea
of which my thoughts are made spray.
I am the sea on which I sail,
I am the ocean and the starry sky,
I am the sea that I profane, the sea where I founder.
My veins ? a torrent,
my limbs ? a forest,
my flesh ? the bark of a tree
which conceals the dark heart of death.
The temple is destroyed and the god speaks no more.
Then I was seized with anguish.
I searched for your remains and gathered your limbs, when the wailers were gripped by terror at the sight of the snakes, innumerable,
which encircled your chest
like branches ? they lived a life other than their own.
I held one in the palm of my hand and showed it the sun.
It froze and threw golden sparks.
Strange echoes reached us from Hell.
I made an offering to Persephone of this vein filled with noble blood
and I heard the song of the earth.
She welcomed me to the abode of shadows.
[ Je Rassemblais Tes Membres Lyrics ]