Jacques Bertin - Jaccottet - The evening news

Original Title: "Les nouvelles du soir"
Text: Philippe Jaccottet
Year: 1989

At the time when light hides its face
In our courtyard the evening news are shouted
We are being grazed, the air is sweet, passing people
In that town, we will just be able to sit down
On the bank of the river where moves a barely green tree
After having eaten hastily, would I even have
The time to do that work before the winter?
To kiss you before leaving?
If you love me, hold me back!
The time at least to catch my breath
Just for that spring that we are left in peace
To border the trembling peace of the river far away
To the point where lights up the motionless factories

But no way, the stranger who walks must not turn over
Or he'd be changed in a statue, one can only go forward. And the towns
Which are still standing will burn
A chance that we loved each other quickly before the absence
Looked at once more, kissed in a hurry
The time to make this work before the winter?
To kiss you before leaving?
If you love me, hold me back!
The time at least to catch my breath
Just for that spring that we are left in peace
To border the trembling peace of the river far away
To the point where lights up the motionless factories

You will leave, suddenly your body is less real
Than the current which uses it and those smokes to the sky
Have more roots than us
It's useless to force each other’s, look at the water how it runs
Through the fault between our two shadows
It's the end which cures us
Of trying to pretend to be smart
But the time to make this work before the winter?
To kiss you before leaving?
If you love me, hold me back!
The time at least to catch my breath
Just for that spring that we are left in peace
To border the trembling peace of the river far away
To the point where lights up the motionless factories