If — Web Exclusive
By Marie-Claire Bancquart
Translated by Wendeline Hardenberg
If everything is hollow,
trunks, innards, genitals, hair, clothing fibers,
clandestine animal crossings in the walls,
if everything is hollow, tender lecheries:
we slip in
we too are filled.
Marie-Claire Bancquart has published over twenty collections of poetry, including Projets alternés, Mémoire d’abolie, Partition, and Opportunité des oiseaux. She has received the Grand Prix de critique de l’Académie française, Grand prix de l’Association internationale des critiques, and prix Sainte-Beuve de la critique, among others.
Wendeline A. Hardenberg received a dual MA/MLS and a Certificate of Literary Translation from Indiana University Bloomington. She currently serves as the instruction coordinator for Buley Library at Southern Connecticut State University. Her translations of Marie-Claire Bancquart’s poetry have appeared in Ezra: An Online Journal of Literary Translation, Ozone Park Journal, Qarrtsiluni Online Literary Magazine, and The Dirty Goat.
Original Text: Marie-Claire Bancquart, Avec la mort, quartier d'orange entre les dents. Paris: Obsidiane, 2005.