Poem, LONDON
May 20, 2024
Road Kill
by Astrid Alben
Poet drove through darkness a cat crossed the dyke.
I crouched it hissed goji berry from its tiny mouth wrestled
the shoulder blades from its spine to the moonless
night imploded on the ground. I carried the cat bundle-bride
to the damp grass lakeside Poet going kill it! Have mercy
the cat moaned end it finite me wring mon petit cou yet
I couldn't wring its neck headlights panting do the kinder
thing and keep tomorrow open strong.
note
- From Plainspeak, Prototype, 2019.
- Japanese translation by Yumiko Koizumi, a post-doctoral scholar (American poetry).
ひきにげ
アストリッド・アルベン
訳 小泉由美子
詩人がくらやみのなかを運転しているとネコが土手をよこぎった。
わたしがかがむとそのネコはシャーとちいさな口元からゴジベリーを吐き出し
月のない夜にむけて背骨から肩甲骨をもちあげようともがき路上で
からだのうちがわから壊れていた。わたしがそのばらけたネコの花よめ
をしめった草地の湖畔にはこぶと詩人は息の根をとめようとする！なんということか
ネコはおわりを嘆き「死ぬ」「あたしのちいさな首」を絞めてとわたしに言うけれど
わたしはそのネコの首を絞められなかったがあえいで進むヘッドライトは
もっとやさしいことをしながら明日をひらかれた力強いものにしつづけている。
注
和訳: 小泉由美子。ポスドク（アメリカ詩）。
Astrid Alben
Astrid Alben is a poet, editor and translator. She is the author of Ai! Ai! Pianissimo (Arc, 2011), Plainspeak (Prototype, 2019) and the forthcoming Little Dead Rabbit (Prototype, 2022). Her poems, essays and reviews are featured in a wide range of publications, including in the Times Literary Supplement, Granta and BBC Radio 4 Four-Thought.
Alben is the editor of three art/science anthologies published by Lars Müller Publications and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Fellowship in 2014 for her work across the arts and sciences with PARS. She is Chair of Poetry London and lives in London.
www.astridalben.com / @AstridAlben
