Montreal poet, raised between two railways and a shipping canal, Robert « publish » his poems by offering them to pretty women and to his friends. Robert has also written and directed a blues record and video-poems which were screened at festivals in Europe, Asia and America. Under the pseudonym « Robert Paquin, Ph. D. » he taught at various universities in addition to indulging in literary translation and film translation / adaptation.
Bodies and souls
(Quartet of quatrains No. 31)
For André Desjardins
A face or a body I seek,
Of angel-, man- or womankind,
With both eyes closed and gaze asleep,
Turned toward the secrets of the mind.
I seek a body or a face
Smiling with open lips and eyes,
Woman or man, in that sweet grace
Shared by the blissful and the wise.
A face, a body and a soul
Seek with closed eyes and open hands.
On skin exposed, beyond control,
Harsh colors splash in stains and bands.
Bodies and souls are born to light;
Bodies are sculpted into stone;
Souls slip away to endless night;
Two hands in prayer are clasped as one.
© Robert 2008
Translation: Sharon Neeman
Robert Paquin wrote this poem inspired by the paintings of André Desjardins. Jerome Langlois, has subsequently set it to music. Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto) interprets this song in a short film that the author wrote and directed with the help of ACIC program of the NFB.
The same film was shown at film festivals:
- Official selection at the I’ve Seen Films Festival in Milan in October 2010
- Official Selection of the Toronto Independent Film Festival in Toronto in September 2011.
Robert told us: « The contralto voice could be that of a man or a woman. The poem is designed to never identify the « I » as a man or a woman. You never know if that man or woman speaks to another man or another woman. This ambiguity emphasizes that androgynous faces of the artist’s paintings.
Credit Photo: Geralt / Pixabay
