"On strands of light I am hanging poetry like garlands."

These first words of poetry from Nicole Brossard anticipate the vast body of work she has published in the last four decades. The poems in Mobility of Light were chosen by Louise H. Forsyth to elicit a sense of these whirling garlands and convey the intense energy-physical, creative, spiritual, erotic, imaginative, playful, ethical, and political-that has carried Brossard to a uniquely significant vision of the human spirit.

Poems are presented in French and English on facing pages, underscoring the density of meaning in each word and line and highlighting the unusual rhythms in Brossard's originals and the extraordinary sonorities with which they beat. Some of the translations in this volume have been previously published, while others are new. In her afterword, Brossard talks about travelling back in time to discover how our most vivid sensations, emotions, and thoughts are nourished and transformed by our enigmatic relation to language.

Nicole Brossard published her first collection of poetry in 1965. The national and international influence of her thirty collections of poetry, ten novels, four book-length essays, and numerous theoretical articles has been enormous. Her latest work in translation, Notebook of Roses and Civilization, was shortlisted for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize.

Table of Contents for
Mobility of Light: The Poetry of Nicole Brossard selected with an introduction by Louis H. Forsyth

Foreword | Neil Besner

Biographical Note

Introduction | Louise H. Forsyth

Aube à la saison / "Season Dawning"

Sur fil de lumière || On strands of light

Mordre en sa chair / "Biting in the Flesh"

La loi du muscle || Muscle's Law

L'écho bouge beau / "Echo Budges Beautiful"

neutre le monde m'enveloppe neutre || neutral the world envelops me neutral

écoute plutôt paisiblement l'écorce craquer || listen quite peacefully to the crust cracking

Suite logique / "Suite logic"

en ces temps opaques || in those opaque times

entre code et code || between code and code

suspension de lacte || action suspended

Le centre blanc / "The White Centre"

IV. le mot vertige || IV. the word vertigo

V. attentive au silence || V. attentive to the silence

Mécanique jongleuse, suivi de Masculin grammaticale / Daydream Mechanics. Masculine Singular

son désir l'explore || her desire explores her

verte vague sur le ventre sur l'échine || green billows on the belly on the spine

La partie pour le tout / "The Part for the Whole"

je prends la page par le côté incertain || I dive into the page through the uncertain side

L'amèr ou le chapitre effrité / These Our Mothers Or: The Disintegrating Chapter

Le corps des mères enlacées || The bodies of mothers entwined

Amantes / Lovhers

quelque part toujours un énoncé || somewhere always a statement

selon les années de la réalité || according to the years of reality

« la splendeur » dit O. || "the splendour," said O.

« la science » dit Xa. || "science" says Xa.

MA continent || MY continent

Marginal Way / "Marginal Way"

l'intention la beauté extrême || intention extreme beauty

ce n'est pas familier dans l'ombre || it's not familiar in shadow

si dans l'ombre je pense à la passion || if in shadow I think of passion

L'aviva / Aviva

l'aviva (l'aviva son visage et les relais) || aviva (aviva a face and the relaying)

l'en suite traduite (l'anima l'image et les effets) || the latest translated (anima image and effects)

l'aviva (car l'aviva, l'attisa lève le voile) || aviva (for the aviva, stirred her lifts the veil)

l'en suite traduite (car voilà que lèvres encore d'elle) || the latest translated (for here that lips still hers)

À tout regard / "If"

Si sismal || If Yes Seismal

Installations / Installations

Réalité || Reality

Langue || Tongue

Installation || Installation

Contemporain || Contemporary

Langues obscures / "Obscure Tongues"

Je m'intéresse à la connaissance || I indulge in knowledge

Je m'intéresse à la connaissance || I indulge in knowledge

La nuit verte du Parc Labyrinthe. Green Night of Labyrinth Park. La noche verde del Parque Laberinto

entre l'histoire bordée de visions || between history framed in visions

Vertige de l'avant-scène / "Downstage Vertigo"

fait de langue tourmente || fact of tongue torments

une fois reproduites dans la langue || once reproduced in language

une façon de se jeter sur le lit || a way of flopping on the bed

Au présent des veines / "Coursing through the Veins"

ce sont toujours les miêmes mots || they are always the same words

La matière heureuse manoeuvre encore, in Auprésent des veines / "Harmonious Matter Is Still Manoeuvring"

aujourd'hui je sais que la structure || today I know that the deepest blue structure

Musée de l'os et de l'eau / Museum of Bone and Water

Théâtre: vitesse d'eau || Theatre. Speed of Water

ce soir si tu rapproches ton visage || tonight if you lean your face close

Le présent n'est pas un livre || The Present Is Not a Book

Le silence de l'hibiscus || The Silence of the Hibiscus

Je m'en vais à Trieste / "I'm Leaving for Trieste"

Wanuskewin || Wanuskewin

Hôtel Clarendon || Hotel Clarendon

Ogunquit || Ogunquit

Cahier de roses et de civilisation. Écritures 2 / Notebook of Roses and Civilization

Suggestions le coeur serré || Suggestions Heavy-Hearted

Soft Link 2 || Soft Link 2

dans le temps facile et bleu || in a time blue and easy

Shadow: Soft et Soif, in Ardeur / Shadow Soft et Soif

tiens-toi bien dans le silence || hold on in silence

Après les mots / "After Words"

Le dos indocile des mots || The Indocile Back of Words

Le dos indocile des mots || The Indocile Back of Words

Postface || Afterword | Nicole Brossard

Acknowledgements