A New Risset Poem

Umberto Todini, Jacqueline Risset's widower, sent me this poem. Unpublished in her lifetime, French and Italian versions appeared in the French magazine Poesie after her death (thanks to Todini).  "Look" showcases some of the recurrent themes of Risset's poetic and intellectual work: the desire to collapse the distances between self and other and between thought and feeling, as well as her tendency to spatialize the mind through metaphor.Here's my English version:

Look

I feel the featuresone could say arrowsrailsthat come herefrom the shining pointpicked for this actionwhich gildsand goes on

That which I wantdesireis your actto surprise the actgestureby whatyou bringthat which you seeelsewhere (in me)in the heart

a protected spacewhere you holdyourselfand livelookI want to enteryour body’s gestureto see myselfseeingfrom out of your eyesgoverned by thisheartwhich escapes me

—Jaqueline Risset (from 14 Poems, New and Old)