En dépit de la lamentation. Poem by Jim Dunlap with English Translation

moi(1)

Authors comment:
Writing it in French was a lot easier than trying to translate it into English since the languages are so different. I had to stop and think numerous times about how to say the same thing in English. I don’t envy translators in the least.
 
 

En dépit de la lamentation
par Jim Dunlap

 
Si l’on croit qu’on est à même de boire à sa vie
à quatre reprises comme boire à même
autant de bouteilles de vin rassi, tout de travers !
on serait si bouleversé par telle une idée
qu’on se mettrait à se trouver
pris en tout désespoir – et le temps
aurait semblance de passer bien trop rapidement
dès cet instant-là.
 
Mais moi, je crois bien que la vie
dure juste assez longtemps sans ce qu’on se soucie
de petits trucs comme ça.
Car ce monde en fait trop des soucis…
pourquoi donc perdre son temps à s’inquiéter
de ce que les jours ont une limite finie.
Chacun cherche à sa façon de se faire riche et sage,
mais personne n᾿y est jamais arrivée
tout en se fiant naïvement au calendrier
pour démarquer ses accomplissements.
 
Que les années sont peu nombreuses !
… en dépit de tout ça, l’on doit (sur)vivre… …
de jour en jour ni sans perdre le temps
ni nous inquiéter que la vie s’écoule
comme un fleuve au précipice
vers un avenir … incertain…
 
…and the English. I didn’t try to turn it into a poem really. I just translated it.(Jim Dunlap)
 
 
In spite of Lamentations
 
If one were to believe that one might devise in one’s life
a time-frame which would be equivalent
to comparing life to four bottles of old wine …
viz a viz the baby bottle to the IV bottle,
one would be nonplussed by such an idea
to such an extent as to be overwhelmed by despair,
and time would seem to pass far too quickly
from that moment on.
 
But myself, I believe totally that life
passes in such a way that it’s unnecessary
to dwell on such minutiae …
Simply put, life contains far too many worries;
why then waste one’s time worrying
since our days are numbered but we don’t
know how, when or why.
 
Each of us would hope in his own way
to be rich and wise, but one doesn’t arrive there
by naively checking days off on a calendar
and tying them to life’s accomplishments.
 
The years of our lives run out quickly.
In spite of that, we must survive and live
from day to day without losing time
in worrying that the minutes flee
like a river dropping over a precipice
towards an uncertain future.
 
 

Jim Dunlap’s poetry has been published extensively in print and online in the United States, England, France, India, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand. His work has appeared in over 90 publications, including Potpourri, Candelabrum, Mobius, Poems Niedernasse, and the Paris/Atlantic. He was the co-editor of Sonnetto Poesia and is currently a Content Admin for Poetry Life & Times. www.facebook.com/PoetryLifeTimes He is also the chief proofreader for the On Viewless Wings Anthologies, published out of Queensland, Australia. In the past, he was a resident poet on Poetry Life & Times and the newsletter editor for seven years with the Des Moines Area Writers’ Network.
 
You may find him here:
 
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Jim%20Dunlap%20Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio.htm
 
Here: http://www.whoislog.info/profile/jim-dunlap-poet.html
 
Homepage: http://mindfulofpoetry.homestead.com/index.html
Here: http://www.pw.org/content/jim_dunlap_1
 
Here: http://www.artvilla.com/plt/currentoct06.html
 
Here: http://allpoetry.com/contest/2602767-Poems-for-Jim-Dunlap
 
Here: http://classicalpoets.org/fairy-dust-anarchy-and-other-poetry-by-jim-dunlap/
 
Here: http://classicalpoets.org/fairy-dust-anarchy-and-other-poetry-by-jim-dunlap/
 
Here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109492
 
Here: http://allpoetry.com/column/9188321-Book-Review-The-Spirit-of-Christmas-in-Poetry-by-Jim-Dunlap-by-WandaLeaBrayton

 

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