Daily Archives: 29 Jun 2014

Poetism Commentary: “réparation de l’amour”

The poem in question: is here.

This is the second of two poems I wrote for assignments in a BYU French class.  This one is more serious in nature, but I still giggle every time I read it, because I thought I was so clever, and I’m still wise/immature enough to think I was clever.  We were studying some different French poetry and themes and the assignment was to write a poem of our own using one of the themes.  I remember three of the themes being love, nature, and death, and it seems there was at least one more, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is.  At any rate, I decided to try to use all the themes together, and I think the result is morbidly splendid, not to mention the foreign-language writing being not too shabby.  Like the last poem, I got an A-, probably for minor grammar errors (which are corrected in this text).

This is called “réparation de l’amour” (“reparation of love”).

Depuis que tue es partie
je sais que tu me regardes du ciel
j’entends ta voix sur le vent
et ta presénce m’enveloppe avec
chaque souffle que je prends.

La forêt de notre enfance
a changé aussi—
trop pour te décrire tout
maintentant.

Ton esprit me touche
chaque fois que je pense à toi.
Tes yeux me regardent
avec une innocence aveugle.

Et quand je me souviens
du dernier jour
je veux mettre la même corde
autour de mon cou
et te trouver où je t’ai envoyée.

And the rough English translation:

Since you left
I know that you watch me from heaven
I hear your voice on the wind
and your presence envelops me with
each breath that I take.

The forest of our childhood
has changed also—
too much to describe it all
now.

Your spirit touches me
each time that I think of you.
Your eyes watch me
with a blind innocence.

And when I remember
the last day
I want to put the same rope
around my neck
and find you where I sent you.

Update 6/27/2016: Here is an image of the paper I originally turned in for my assignment.

reparation de l'amour