poésie musicale de Bretagne

WE'LL GO WEST

.

We'll go west shoulder to shoulder leaning over the rails

on a ferry-boat in company of sea-gulls

leaving off our sadness and sorrow in her wake

farewell Brittany, watch the skyline

.

We'll land on the quays, the sea-weeds

in the river-mouth of Dingle Bay, of Killarney

streaming with water, the trailers, crates full of fish

the sailing-boats sailing ashore in the choppy sea

.

We'll go funny bird whistling my love

in a fiddle tune the adventures of seamen

who play for freedom in the cubicles of pubs

« Have a safe journey! » will say handling our glasses

.

We'll read the tatooes on the dockers' skin

in the interlaced jewlery, the pretty girls' heart

under the freckles, Deirdre's sorrows

and in the clenched fist a torn country

.

In the memory of heavy helmets, the choppers

flying over Falls Roads and the tags on the walls

we'll utter Bobby Sand's name where blood has shed

when the violent harp played a hue and cry

.

We'll be seen at the far end of Connemara

in the drenched green bogs will the ponys

leap forward reeling over pastures and your lips

will taste beer and honey as I like it

.

Leaving from Doolin Peer on the Queen of Aran

tossed by the swell shouder to shoulder

Passengers for Inish Mean where Synge had come

We'll walk rovers on the sandy lanes

.

And the small walls will shelter fishing gear

and the poem that he wrote on the curragh

and the reddened turf in the blackened fire-places

when gaelic was still spoken in the cottages

.

We'll go west shoulder to shoulder over the rails

on a ferry-boat in company of sea-gulls

drowning our grief and sorrow in her wake

sailing hand in hand towards the Aran islands

.

With the taste of beer and honey when loving

a beam of sun lightning in the gloom

We'll walk rovers over the sandy lanes

Farewell my country, watch the skyline !

.

Patrick Arduen, translated by Jakez-Erwan Mouton