Marie Dauguet: 'Sous la bise'

The Bise on Lake Geneva

 

Sous la bise

 

Sous la bise qui le knoute,

     Ecoute

Le bois se tordre et hurler

 

Et, dans un ciel sans lumière,

     Lanières,

La pluie fauve le cingler.

 

Fuyant l’atroce martyre

     Chavire

D’un coup le bois tout entier,

 

Puis soudain jusqu’en la nue

     Se rue,

Redressé d’un bond altier;

 

Mais le vent qui le décharne,

     S’acharne,

Mate sa rébellion;

 

Des feuillages que transperce

     L’averse

Le flamboyant tourbillon

 

Emplit l’air qui s’en effraie,

     La plaie

Rougit des bois flagellés;

 

Et voici de la hêtrée

     Vautrée

Des gouttes de sang gicler.

 

 

Under the Bise

 

Under the lashing cold Bise*,

     The trees –

Oh hear how they writhe and howl!

 

And, from a sky where light fails,

     Thick trails –

The fawn rain scourges their cowls.

 

Fleeing the imminent spate

     Of fate,

The whole wood just overturns,

 

Though up to the clouds then speeds

     Stampedes,

And haughtily fate now spurns.

 

But the wind which assails it,

     Flails it

Quelling its mutinous act;

 

The leaves are pierced by the rain

     Insane,

This swashbuckling cataract

 

Whirls through the air filled with dread,

     Turns red

The wound of the welted wood;

 

And here from the sprawling beech–

     Tree’s breach

One sees drops of spurting blood.

 

* The Bise is a specific European wind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bise

 

* The Bise is a specific European wind, also referred to by La Fontaine in his famous fable 'La cigale et la fourmi': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bise