Rivage du sud – Rivage du Nord
Southern shore – Northern shore
Here they found themselves, on the Southern shore, four times a day – crossing, in a waking dream, the invisible bridge to reach the other side, the Northern shore.
They were just like kittens, seeking a corner, a hollow in the white, blue and ochre town that seemed out of proportion; seeking a place where they could snuggle up, far from the noisy town with its plastic bags covering the sidewalks.
Their house on the other side of words had but one chair.
They went onboard, bringing along with them more images than the stories of their young lives could contain.
Since then they have been seeking their own words, their food, their music – its noises, its silence, its space – holding onto the breath that initiated their lives, like an invisible sea where fish that have sloughed off their skin keep on swimming. Long ago above the water the flying fish lost its scales.
At the far end of the sea they always come back. In its sand they dig in deep wells, seeking in it their unburdened youth, like a sandy pearl nothing can ever destroy.
On the seafront they stir again and again the riddles of its skin. Could they find in it a secret passage leading to their own lives?
By the seaside their dreams fold back; holding out their tongues, they catch, one after the other, the reflections of forgotten dreams before treeless birds catch them to feed the sky’s famished stomach.
They watch the reflection of the immense sky sleeping peacefully, the water-swollen belly of the sea upon which the big boat’s propeller is gliding, drawing in its core an ephemeral brown and white line they have always known, having memorized it on the ember-colored belly of the one who gave them birth.
Here they found themselves, on the Southern shore, four times a day – crossing, in a waking dream, the invisible bridge to reach the other side, the Northern shore.
Fadma Kaddouri (2006) / Texte / Text
Traduit en anglais par Emmanuelle Andresse (2010) / Translated into English by Emmanuelle Andresse (2010)