Olivia Elias

 Olivia Elias

Translated from French by Kareem James Abu-Zeid

On No Account

May 2019

On no account will I say
So be it!
and may a glorious sun
shine forever
on the House of York

I’d like to swing on the balcony
but continue rubbing
stone against stone of language
to keep the campfire burning

you wanted me banished
but see I live in these hills
my singing fills your nights
how could you all
sleep so calmly
in the bed of Unreason?

may So be it
never be said

It Was a Senseless Time*

It was a senseless time
the dead were seated at tables

viruses downpours & smoke
overwhelm lungs & TVs

even the camels
have lost their humps their fat

the old ghosts are gathering
at the city gates

in a way it was easier
in the age of certainties

have yet to find
what to replace them with

* Translator’s note: The first two lines of this poem are from the poem “Est-ce ainsi que les hom-mes vivent” (Is this How Men Live?) by Louis Aragon (1897–1982), in the collection Le Roman
inachevé (The Unfinished Novel).