Friday Mar 29

MoureErin Erín Moure, poet, translator and essayist, has published 17 books of poetry in English and in Galician/English, and 13 volumes of poetry translated from French, Spanish, Galician and Portuguese into English, by poets such as Nicole Brossard, Andrés Ajens, Louise Dupré, Rosalía de Castro, Chus Pato and Fernando Pessoa. Her translations of White Piano by Nicole Brossard (with Robert Majzels) and Galician Songs by Rosalía de Castro just appeared (2013). Her work has received the Governor General's Award, Pat Lowther Memorial Award, A.M. Klein Prize, and has been a three-time finalist for the Griffin Prize. She recently finished the bilingual French/English play Kapusta, a sequel to The Unmemntioable (Anansi, 2012) and a further investigation into subjectivity and wartime in Ukraine and Alberta, and is now completing Insecession, an autobiography and poetics that echoes Chus Pato’s Secession, which will published together with Secession as one book by BookThug in 2014. She is currently translating Chus Pato’s Carne de Leviatán into English as Flesh of Leviathan, and is working on a new book of poems called The Elements. Moure is based in Montreal.

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Retrato de Pascual, Galego



Pascual Moure
Quiroga e Pardo
segundo sargento
no reximento de Monterrei
baixo o mando de Blake
Exército de Galicia
4o división
compañía primeira
na vanguardia
agardando artillería
labrador de oficio
galego enteiro
até as tripas
“campesiño mi-famento”
un deses “bandidos
dirixidos por monxes”
condecorado
polo seu valor e celo
nas batallas sangrentes
contra os franceses
exércitos de Napoleon
1808
-Medina de Rioseco
-Zormotza
-Gueñes
-Espinosa de los Monteros
sen calzado en novembro
na retirada de Blake
mandados despois
para De Romana
de volta a Galicia
até as montañas súas
Pascual Moure
segundo sargento
condecorado
escudo de distinción
1824
5 pés e 1 pulgado de altura
ollos pardos
pelo castaño claro
nariz regular
cerrado de barba
cicatrices de varíola
Pascual Moure
fillo de Nicolás
natural de San Clodio
esposo de Benita
Benita Lobariñas
natural de Crecente
retiro de inválido ás 50
clase de disperso
vila de Crecente
1829
18 de decembro
pai de João Benito
avó de Juan Benito
bisavó de William Benito
tataravó de Erín Claire

que vive en Canadá
que escribe este retrato
que fala galego

que fala francés.






Portrait of Pascual, Galician



Pascual Moure
Quiroga e Pardo
Second Sargeant
in the Regiment of Monterrei
under the command of Blake
Army of Galicia
4th Division
First Company
in the avant-garde
guarding artillery
labourer by profession
Galician fully
right to his organs
half-famished peasant
one of those “bandits
led by monks”
decorated
for his valour and zeal
in the bloody battles
against the French
armies of Napoleon
1808
Medina de Rioseco
Zormotza
Gueñes
Espinosa de los Monteros
shoeless in November
in Blake’s retreat
command handed
to De Romana
back into Galicia
into his own mountains
hungry and in rags
Pascual Moure
Second Sargeant
decorated
shield of distinction
5 feet 1 inch tall
eyes brown
hair light brown
regular nose
heavy beard shadow
scarred by smallpox
Pascual Moure
son of Nicolás
native of San Clodio
husband of Benita
Benita Lobariñas
native of Crecente
retired ill at 50
and given his leave
in the town of Crecente
1829
18 December
father of João Benito
grandfather of Juan Benito
great grandfather of William Benito
great-great grandfather of Erín Claire

who lives in Canada
who writes down this portrait
who speaks Galician

who speaks French.







Shiny Front



Is it you, sadness? Maudit
chiffre ma tête
Chiffrée

picotée
des grammes, de la raison
en grammes

aujourd’hui
Pas meilleur

Is that you, wayside station?
School patrol badge?

Overcoat with the shiny front?
Static hem?