INHERITANCE


A small selection (Translated by Dr. Douglas B. Gregor)

ONCE UPON A TIME

Once upon a time
there was good flour.
A loaf emerged
that one ate
even a week later.
And broth?
Made with chicken
every so often,
it had a taste
no longer felt nowadays.
And those strong men
all muscle
who used to lift hundredweights
as if they were fleas
where have they gone?

Once upon a time!
Once...
Once upon a time: that is how fairy-tales begin.


INHERITANCE

If one looks at them
one cannot help lowering one's eyes.
It's all very well for you to say
that we are all the same
and that everyone
eats and drinks
feels coldness and warmth,
catches cold just like him.

It's waste of time.

Because
shyness
shame
fear
have been felt
in tha marrow of one's bones
for generations and generations.

For hundreds of years
he has always been,
cap in hand
and eyes cast-down,
saying "Yes sir".


THE FIRST WATCH

I bought it
with a labourer's wages
when I was not yet fourteen.

My first watch!

Now
that I am more than forty
it is still going, imagine,
and not losing a minute.

My father is wearing it.

He,
to have his first watch,
has had to wait
for me to buy my second.


THE OLD MAN

What was that old man waiting for,
who, every day
would sit down on the log
in the shadow of the poplar by the cross-roads?
He was there for hours at a time
with hands resting on his stick
and eyes staring
into the distance.

Every now and then
someone would pass by on a bicycle
or in a coach
and would call out to him:
"How goes it, grandad?"
"As for all poor old'uns.
I am just waiting here.
Now that I am useless,
all I can do is wait".

A wave with his hand,
a twirl of his moustache,
then another look around,
slowly,
to store up in his eyes the sight
of the pebbles in the road,
of tha water in tha ditch,
of the fresh-turned sods in the fields,
of the leaves on the trees
and the flight of birds
and of the blue of the sky,
the sun-light.

The taste of life.


IT IS RAINING

A drizzle,
a really fine one,
rattles
on the roof-tiles;
what a pleasure
to hear it
under the sheets.


THE GAMBLER

Lewis always used to say:
"If I win the lottery,
I want to stay in the pub
all day.
I want to enjoy life
at last".

One week
he struck lucky
and could hardly contain himself,
so glad he was.

Only,
when the moment came to collect his winnings,
he had been dead for two days.


TIME

Man,
never forget:
the thousands of years to have a smooth, hairless brow;
the tremendous efforts
to talk with your neighbours without bellowing;
the time it has taken
to notice that grains of corn
yield a white powder that prevents death;
the toil it took to become a human being.

Never forget it;
and then walk straight ahead,
because time is given you
by the Lord for free.


TO CHANGE

As if it were easy
to change
like that
from one day to the next,
when under the finger-nails
one can still see
the signs of the earth.


CONSUMPTIVE

He was
a real lord:
he always had
all that he wanted.

Because
he only ever wanted
that
wich he could have.

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