THE SPIRIT WALKS, THE ROCKS WILL TALK
Eccentric Translations from Two Eccentrics

For Guy Davenport,
word-builder
 
 
 

FROM LE FACTEUR CHEVAL, BUILDER OF LE PALAIS IDEAL,
HAUTRIVES, FRANCE

“I built, in a dream, a chateau of grottoes . . .
so pretty, so picturesque, that ten years after it was still
engraved in my memory so that I was never able to escape it.

Then after 15 years, when I had begun to forget my dream a
little, I thought less of the world:  it was my foot that
recalled me.

My foot had caught an obstacle that made me fall; I had wanted
to know what it was.  It was a stone of such bizarre form that
I put it in my pocket in order to admire it at my convenience.”
 
 
 

1

Night and day

what to do

- while walking perpetually
 

in the same place -

except dream.
 
 
 

2

The weather -

the criticism
- and the years.

Sometimes
in flowers.

Sometimes

in snow and ice.
 
 
 

3

The stones

absorbed me -
troubled my sleep

- flamingoes,

geese,
 

and eagles.
 
 
 

4

A cascade

chiseled by Nature.

Grotesque and original
plants (or animals)
placed

in a thousand little strange
palaces . . .

Where the dream
becomes real

the word
‘impossible’

does not exist.
 
 
 
 

5

Le vent de l’énergie
M’a souffle votre génie.

Translation:

My work has been

inspired
 

by wind.
 
 
 
 

6

A number of serpents
project to the fascinated eye.

I was never able

to escape.
 
 
 
 

7

I have placed this
monument

under the care
of three

giants.
 

My wheelbarrow
is in
a special

niche.
 
 
 
 

8

(A l’interieur de Palais Imaginaire)
“J’ai voulu dormir ici.”

In the interior
of the Imaginary Palace:

“I have wanted

to sleep here.”
 
 
 
 

9

My tomb
is called Le Tombeau
de Silence -

of silence and
repose

without end.
 

Night and
Day.  At the two

extremities

are found
 

a labyrinth.
 
 
 
 

10

One day
this rock

will talk.

FROM RAYMOND ISIDORE, BUILDER OF LE PETIT
PIQUE-ASSIETTE, CHARTRES (EURE-ET-LOIR), FRANCE

“I was walking in the country when I saw by chance some bits
of glass and crockery which I collected for their color and
sparkle.  I accumulated them in a corner of my garden, then
the idea came to me of making a mosaic of my house.”
 
 
 
 

1

Slowly, a man
makes
(a mosaic

of earth and sky)
 

his house.
 
 
 
 

2

When it seizes me

always the same

colors that have begun

to fade.
 
 
 
 

3

I have heard

of the Facteur Cheval,
but I have never
seen him.

Two tombs, two
thrones -

one black
one blue.

It is
what

one sees.
 
 
 
 

4

To the interior,
to a world of

the very
small,
to the boudoir-jardin

d’hiver,

I have brought both
monsters

and cathedrals.

The spirit

walks.
 
 
 
 

5

Dans mon

milieu
dans

mon lieu -
 

and a tiny door
inlaid

in my head
 

that leads
to the winter

garden.
 
 
 
 

6

After me,
nothing dies.

I made it

alone.

THE SPIRIT WALKS, THE ROCKS WILL TALK is © 1969 by Ronald Johnson, and © 2003 by the Ronald Johnson Estate. All reproduction rights for the text remain with the Ronald Johnson Estate.