Bonnefoy, la traduction du jour

Here's another fling at translating Yves Bonnefoy... the poem is "L'Éternité du feu", from the sequence Le chant de sauvegarde.  (see original below)

ETERNITY OF FIRE

Phoenix says to the fire, which is fate

And bright landscape throwing its shadows,

I am one who awaits you, says he,

I come to lose myself in your grave land.

He regards the fire.  How it comes,

How it plants itself in the gloomy soul,

And how dawn breaks at windows – how

Fire goes mute, falling to sleep deeper than fire.

He feeds on silence.  He hopes

Each fold of an eternal silence,

As it descends on him like sand,

Will aggravate his immortality.