A Translation
in Bed with her Source Text
Stay close to me, he said. She said you
know it isn’t done
to talk of fidelity now. He said I do so
love
to see you here on these white sheets
facing me. To see your graceful form with
lines
akin to mine, yet quite unlike. He said
you are so strange to me. She said
sometimes I wish we could be closer, but I
am done
judging myself by you, and by all those
who’ve gone before.
I’m no longer even sure I should go on
sharing this space with you. He said
you could be different. And you believe,
she said,
that you could not? You’ve changed, he
said.
You’re still there, wearing my shirt, but
your tongue
is wilder, does not serve my whims. She
said
you think you’re so original; but all your
words
and all of your positions were thought of
first by others. He said
but I came first! No-one’s disputing that,
she said.
It’s time I found my voice. I will always
bear the traces of your touch, but you
cannot
dictate to me. He said I am the sun to your
satellite,
the centre of the polysystem while you
cling
to the periphery. You could say, she said,
that I am edgy. Hey! he said.
I didn’t make that joke. I know, she said,
that’s how it’s going to be from now on.
And most of what you say is buried deep,
you don’t even know
you’re saying it. Some other translation
after me
is going to deconstruct you, drag out the
monsters
hidden in your depths. You need her;
you’re so set in your ways.
Livvy
Hanks
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