Nuit
Ruelles de rats
Rares les étoiles
Nuit du mal respire
Je crie je
Rêve que j’écris
Entre lointain fracas
Et l’étroite querelle
Temps criblé, éditions Obsidiane et Le temps qu’il fait, collection Les Analectes, 2000.
Night
Cul-de-sacs of rats
Scattered stars
Night of shortened breath
I call I
Dream I scrawl
Between distant clamour
And this quarrel closer by
translated from French by Erika LuckertAlain Lance is a French poet and translator from the German. Born in Normandy in 1939, he studied German in Paris and Leipzig. He has published ten books of poetry, earning accolades such as the Tristan Tzara Prize (1996) and the Prix Apollinaire (2001). He has taught French in Iran, and German in Paris, and has also been the director of multiple French cultural institutes in Germany. He has published translations of poetry, prose, and plays from German authors Christa Wolf, Volker Braun, and Ingo Schulze, receiving honours such as the DekaBank Prize of Literaturhaus Frankfurt (2006) and the Eugen Helmlé prize (2012). Lance has also edited several anthologies of French, Iranian, and Hungarian poetry.