Poem a day for 7 April 2013: just words

I listened to a ‘Poem Talk’ podcast today of a discussion of Caroline Bergvall’s poem ‘Via: 48 Dante Variations’. The poet collected English translations of the first three lines of Dante’s Inferno from the British Library and arranged them in a certain order.

(The podcast is here.)

So I decided to do a little experiment of my own, which turned into something completely different from what had been discussed in the podcast! I selected a poem called ‘Je suis comme je suis’ from the book Paroles by one of my favourite French poets, Jacques Prévert. The first two lines of the poem are:

Je suis comme je suis
Je suis faite comme ça

I translated them, then worked my way through repeating the two lines – but each time I changed the punctuation and/or order of the words without altering the rhythm of the first two lines. In the first few lines I changed a few words. I retained the same number of lines of the original poem (32) and a stanza break at the same point (after line 12).

The meaning transformed and ended up somewhere quite poignant. Here it is.

just words

I am what I am
I am made that way.
I am who I am
I am made like that.
I am who? I am.
I am. Made. Like that?
I am I am who?
I like that, am made.
Who am I? Are you
like that? I am maid.
Who are you? My eye
likes that maid, I am.

I am who? Are you
who I am? What maid?
You are who my eye
likes, you are made you.
I am. You are. I.
You are. I am. You.
I am. You are. I.
You are. I am. You.
I am. You are. I.
You are. I am. You.
I am. You are. I.
You am I am you
You are why. We made.
You are I, my who.
You are who, and why.
You and I, who are.
You who are my why.
You and I were who?
You who were my who?
Who? You? Me? We? Why?