Empreintes Fingerprints

Empreintes

Si l'on pouvait  écrire
just en apposant
ses empreintes digitales      
sur la page       
cela éviterait    
le mal que l'on se donne  
pour rechercher l'originalité                    
à n'importe quel prix 
 

Fingerprints

If we could write
simply by placing
fingerprints
on a page
it would relieve
the pain we endure
trying to be original
at any price
 

Fingerprints

If only we could write
just by laying
our fingerprints
on the page
this would avoid
the hurt we incur
in the quest for originality
regardless of the cost
 

Translating this tiny poem involved much thought and discussion. We struggled for some time with the title: in the original French, it’s ‘Prints’ not ‘Fingerprints’ (though that word crops up in the third line). But ‘prints’ in English has far wider connotations than in French. So we stuck with ‘Fingerprints’.

Most of our efforts centred on trying to make our final version sound as ‘light’ and colloquial as the original – as close to ordinary speech in English. Do let us know how you think we got on!

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Abdellatif Laâbi

Translated by

André Naffis-Sahely with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

French

Country

Morocco