edited by Doug Holder

Our poet for the "Lyrical" this month is C.D. Collins. She writes –
For my community benefit project for the Somerville Arts Council grant which partially funded my CD "Subtracting Down"
I wrote a love poem …to Somerville.
It is a short lyric poem that I have had translated into ten languages.
This was a complex and fascinating process in which the translators, all women as it turned out, were translating from English to their native languages, the language of their hearts.  I felt that each translation surpassed my original poem in content and musicality, and that together we were doing something that took on a life of its own, blending voices from cultures that are in conflict into a love poem and creating a multi-hued tapestry.
I got both written and oral versions of these poems and will use the oral versions in a song.

If you want to be considered for the "Lyrical" send your work to Doug Holder   25 School St.  Somerville, Mass. 02143 

dougholder@post.harvard.edu 

City of Dreams

I wait
In the gloaming of the fairy’s lantern,
Steal in beside me,
Cup my body
With your body of light. 
For you, I open the passage
To my city of dreams,
What is the spark that lights this place?
It is the quick, the filament
That burns through the cage of night,
Illuminates the path
Where you discover me
Where I discover you.

CD Collins

Haitian Creole:

Site Rev

M’ap tann ou nan klate ti lanp majik la
Rantre non ave’m,
Vlope kò-m ak limyè kò-w.
Pou ou,
Mwen fè rout pou rantre nan jaden vil rèv mwen
Ki etensèl kap klere kote sa-a?
Se mèch, se ti flanm dife
Kap boule prizon lannuit-lan
Kap liminen chimen
Kote ou rive jwenn mwen
Kote mwen rive jwenn ou.

Translation
by Danielle Legros Georges and Charlot Lucien

Spanish:

Te espero
en la medialuz de la
Linterna de las hadas,
Entra a mi lado
Acurrucate a mi cuerpo
Con tu cuerpo de luz
Te he concedido pasaje a la ciudad de mis suenos.
Cual es la lumbre que ilumina este lugar?
Es la llama, el filamento vivo
Que quema a traves de la jaula de la noche
E ilumima el sendero
Donde tu me descubres
Donde yo te descubro
Translation
Natalia Muina

FRENCH:
Je t’attends au crepuscule
de la lanterne d’une fee,
qui s’infiltre a mes cotes.
Mon corps aux creux
De ton corps de lumiere.
J’ai devine ton passage dans la cite de mes reves.
Quelle est cette etincelle qui embellit ces lieux ?
C’est la chaire-vive, le firmament
Qui brule au fond de la cage nocturne
et illumine le chemin
ou tu me decouvres
ou je te decouvre.

Translation
Naima Muchnik

GREEK:

Na breqoume
Na VreTHUmeh

Se perimenw mes to fws tou lucnariou ths neraidas
Ela na suwoseis to skepasma kai na glustrhshs dupla mou
Anggaliazontas to kormi mou me to fwtino sou swma
Sou ecw dwsei to klidi gia th polh twn oneirwn
Pia na ne h sklantiqra pou fwtizei auto to cwro
Eine h pugh ths zwhs 
Pou h ousia ths feggobwlh
Gia na se breqoume

Translation Maria Vasolopoulous