La connaissance ne pardonne pas Knowledge Is Unforgiving

La connaissance ne pardonne pas

La connaissance ne pardonne pas  
Elle te ronge           
De quoi serais-tu coupable?         
D'un quelconque oubli                                    
ou de surenchère                                             
De te sentir brûler avec les mots                       
que tu as mis sur l'innomable                                      
et de rester vissé sur ton siège                           
en sirotant ton café?                    
Ose le dire:            
même innocent du mal      
tu en es l'otage                                                
Peut-on pacifier le cœur des bourreaux    
changer d'humanité?                                                 
Personne n'a la réponse                                    
La rédemption, la Rédemption                          
murmures-tu          
cette équation insoluble      
 

Knowledge Is Unforgiving

Knowledge is unforgiving
It gnaws at you
What are you guilty of?
Something forgotten
or overdone?
To feel yourself burning with the words
you draped over the unnameable,
pinned to your seat
while sipping your coffee?
Dare to say it:
despite being free of evil
you are its hostage
Can we melt the executioner's heart
change human nature?
No one has the answer
redemption, Redemption
you murmur
that insoluble equation
 

Consciousness is unsparing

Consciousness is unsparing
It gnaws at you
What are you guilty of?
Of some forgotten
or exaggerated thing
Of the sensation of being burned
by words you drape over the unnameable
and of being glued to your seat
while sipping your coffee?
Dare to say it:
despite being clean of evil
you are its hostage
Can we appease the butcher's heart
change our humanity?
Nobody's got the answer
redemption, Redemption
you murmur
that insoluble equation
 

We grappled most with the very first word of this poem which Andre, in his literal version, quite correctly had translated as ‘consciousness’. In the end, we went with ‘knowledge’ because of its sense of something actively gained and human, rather than the more passive, almost biological ‘consciousness’.

Sarah Maguire, Workshop Facilitator

Original Poem by

Abdellatif Laâbi

Translated by

André Naffis-Sahely with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

French

Country

Morocco