The towers of Notre-Dame

By Lyrikline Collaboration Poets

[not published yet]

By Jacques Roubaud
Translated by Claire Nashar.

when by chance I come upon

the towers of Notre-Dame

unlike Tristan Derème

who

coming upon the Towers of Saint-Sulpice

pissed

against them

I mediate

a meditation quasi

modal in nature,

esméraldine almost, hugoesque you might say,

sitting in the public garden

behind

the reverend clouds turn away

the pigeons gargoyle the japanese tourists photodigitize themselves

in front of it

closed by gates the more-or-less-abandoned-garden

where three little black cats drink

the good white milk of Catholic

France

they belong to his Grace

(lustiger)

later they will climb among your weather vanes

o masterpiece of gothic art!