220 BESIDE PHILOSOPHY —“LITERATURE” sce moment of the cnt the leon of wha Riel ‘ema thc ent oneal sven ht a eo or ‘Seapotel veo ofan ning sare wi he ape ‘Pitenclagal comeraenc ental" Theoqnos eee egy fel metre hoo, po neo hh Foal sen 10 See Mean is) —En. Inthe ger of few weak ered Geld Hat's won cts lu lr {retention nae aoe ped 9 tol Chien Dee Pact Liven deacon as: Pye 9 tam ny eg {tine he sks nl many ether th Elton dbo ‘Nise Lomond invent des dante by Gn or Deca Prone on enn ht he hr in neal ei ikea tc ‘ny th nc hw to with etre, npags stout, ‘hl ate ean ci eta dane ‘eave in pe ist ss Delage emt Sser net et td ss Rac su mance of he th btn reo eae aden te te wane haps {Eee be plot idiots ad recs waren eR “che coe's te poosia?” (1088) ‘he allan poetry journal Poesia invited Deda to write something forthe aie with whic i opens every sue under the de “Che ‘sve la poesia!” [What is poetry! or more Inealy, What thing is ‘pocty! Deni responded sith this Eel tex that yeas ten pub Fished bade ite eallan translation We reproduce there beside our ten English translation, thos devising yet another kindof “double tana" "As always, Dexia works to abolish the distance between what the weiting about poetry, the poem, the poets, or ashe wil nally il the poematic) and what his wings doing. Reference with fut referent, this poet defines or deseabesoaly itself even a8 i Drints beyond itll to the poet In general eis wits Deri, 2 ‘ensson, in talan ite «name which loses all sic resonance ts soon a ii tana into English: hedgehog, a European cousin fhe porcupine that ha similar bis of slldefense. The risk of {his ow in crowsng cover rom one language o another, or already in the eanser nto ay languages all cases che hélsson troll tell toto bal inthe middle of the rosd and ble st spines: héiser means to bristle ot spike, and therefor may be sald of text ‘har I is spiked with difletes or even taps (eg, "ée mombreax ges esesene Ie texte”) If inded the poste brotles with dif uy, thie very mechanism of tumingin on sl fr protection rm, the ish of we also what exposes to being rubbed ou, olter bed, Thus, he poem's appeal the ear and otha thet mechs tise fr rementboting which i eld in many languages, ening year “To increase the hrisson's chances of geting aerss the rod, we have posted a aumber of signe bere dhe length of the distance to be fraveted. These depots in ew of note, ae sett onesie 0 they wil aot get underfoot ofthe creature's movements.Pour rpondee 2 une tlle question —en dex mots, neste pat?—on te demande de save renonce au save. ede ban le savor, sons famats Youblie: démobilse la eultare mais ce que tu sacefes ep route, en tavesont le route, ne Feubliejameis dans ta docte igno ui ose me demander cla! Meme nen pacat rin, cae daparsice eet bao, la te ponte se vie dct” Jo suis une dltée, pro ‘once la poise, apprendemot par coe e copie elle garde mes, regorde- mo, dices, sous les yeux: bande son, wake, silage def Imire photographie del fteen de ile se vote dit, la réponse, tre po igus. Bt pour cela tense de wadresser & aquelgan,singulerement 2 fot mais comme 2 Yetre perdu dans Panonyrmat, entre ville et ‘nature un seco parags dle foss publi et Divé,abelument Fun et Faxte, absous de Aebors et devedans, man ni Pte, Pati ‘mal fee sur Ta route, abso, slit, role en boule ape de oi peut se faire écraset, Justement, pour esla mime, le heron, is rma (che c0s'e Ia possia? In order to respond to such a question—in two word, night!—you are asked to know how to renounce knowledge, And to know it well, without ever forgeting it: demobi- lize culture, but never forget in you learned ‘ignorance what you strifie onthe rea, in crossing the rosd ‘Who dares to ask me that? Even though it remain inspparent, since disappearing ists law, che answer soe te as) dictated (dic- tation. ama dictation, pronounces poetry, Team me by hears, copy me dow, guard and keep me, look out for me, look at me; dc tated. dictation, ight before your eyes: soundtrack, wake, rll of light, photograph ofthe feast in mouming Te seas itself, dhe response, dictated to be poeta by being poetic. And fr that reason, Fels obliged to address itself to someone, singularly to you but aif tothe Being lost in anonyinity between city and nature, an imparted secret, at once public and privat, absolutely one and the other, absolved fom ‘within and from without, neither one aor the other, the animal thrown onto the roa, sbsolute solitary rolled up ins bal, next to (tls. And for that very Tessa, it may get steelf run over, fst, the sso, istice™ in elon, n English, hedgehos224 BESIDE PHILOSOPHY. sito séponds aotremeat selon les ces, ‘ampte tenw de espace et du temps qui te ‘ont deans avec cate demande (to poles italien), par elle méme, selon cute éecaorae ‘mais aust dans Pimminence de quelgue to verde hors de ches orgie vrs fa langue deez en ve dune traduction impossible on fase, case mais désre comme une ‘mort, qavestce que tout ela, cela méme od tu viens dia dete dale, urate 2 voir, dis Tors, avec la pode! Avec Te postgue plat, car ts entende paver de expésience, ate ‘mot pour voyage, it le tandonnte leat an woe, la stophe qu tour mais james ne racondult au decors, i ches jamal tte moins ne ered 8 la pods sett par lee, mime chante Voici dan, owt de suite, deux mots, our ne pas oublier 1. Lésonomie dela memoir: un pode doit re bref-par vocation ligt, quale given soit tendue objective ou apparente. Docte “Inconsctent de la Verichtang di ee. 2. Le coeur Nan pa le coeur amie des noses qui cicalent sone nique sur le Schangears etsy lessenetraduie toutes langues. Non pas simplement le coeur ds chives cardiogaphiques, objet des avo es techniques, des philosophies ot des is. cours biothicojniigues. eat ate par Je oour des Bertares ou do Patel, ni mere, est moins sir, el que leu prefer Heide. set. Non, une histor de “coeur” posique- ‘ment envelopée dans Pdiome “append pat Sane EE I “che dor I poesia” 228, And if you respond otherwise depending ‘on each case, taking into account the space tnd time which you ate given with this de ‘mand alteady you ae speaking Italian); by the demand itself, according to this econ tomy but ato in the imminence of some traversal outside youre, away fom home, venturing toward the language ofthe over in view of en impossible or denied transla tion, necessary but desired like a death— ‘what would all of this, ehe very thing in ‘which you have just begun to tum deli. ‘ously, ave to do, a that pong, with poetry? ‘Or rather, with the poetic, since you intend to speak about an experience, another word foe voyage, here the alestorysambling of 2 tuck, the strophe” that tars but never leads ack co discourse, or back home, at lasts never reduced to poctry—vriten, spokes, oven sung. Here thea, sight aw. snot to forget: 1. The economy of meinory: a poem must ‘bre, elipcical by vocation, whatever may beits objective or apparent expanse, Leamed “unconscious of Verdichtang and of there 2. The hear. Not the hearin the mile ‘of sentences that circulate risk-free through the interchanges and let themselves be tuanslated into any and all Langages. Not simmly the heart archived by cadiogaphy, the object of siences or technologies, of philosophies and bioethicoyusidial ds: ‘courses Pechape not the heart of the Seip tures or of Pesca, no eve, this is less ex tain, the one that Heidegger prefers to them. No, story of “heart” poeially enveloped ‘nthe ion “apprendre par coe” whether sn two words, 80226 pESIDE PHILOSOPHY —"'LITERATURE” ‘Che cov la poesia!” 227 neu," cla de ma langue ou dune exe anglase to lean by hear, ou d'une entre | encore, Vorabe afc abt kal) sea ‘Arab language (hofiza @°i zahri kalb)—s taaet 3 paseurs voies, ih «Sem single tek with several tracks” Deusen un le send aiome sense dans Gan PE "Teo in one the second axiom ie rolled le premier, Le pottigue,disonle, serait co vp in the frst. The poetic, let us say it, \ que ta disies aprenden de Pout. gdce {in my language or another, the English lan guage (to lea by heart or still nother, the ‘would be that which you desire to learn, but {2 oute et sous dete, pr cet: mparre& from and of the other, thanks to the other ‘memoria. Nestce pas déa cela, Ie poss and under dictation, by hear, imparare a lovsq’un gage est donné, avenue dn bréne- ‘memoria. Isn't that already it, the poem, ment, 2 instant of ld traverse de a route evo see who once & token is given, te advent” of =n ommée wadietion reste aust improbable sore ferent, at the moment in which the tavers- ‘un acident, intenément tarde pourtant i Ing of the roed named trenslation remains ‘equise I 0 ce qual promt toujours las fs improbable as an accident, one which is 2 disier! Une teconnaesance va vers cla all the same intensely dreamed of, required imme e préven it Ta connaissance ta bend ‘there where what it promises always leaves tion avant le savoi, samething to be desired A grateful recogn Fable que ta pouraisraconter comme le on goes out toward that very thing snd don du potme,* crest une histate embléma- tke fhe dems precedes cognition here: your benediction Ligue: quelq’an Pec, 2 tot, de to orf. before knowledge Non, une marque to adres, ase on ‘A lable that you could recount asthe gift ‘ie, s'ccompagne d'une njnetion, en én of the poem, it is an emblematic story: ‘instew en cet onde méme quid soto te Someone writes you, to you, of You, ou. i constitu, assgnant ton origin ote donnant No, ather a mark addressed to you, left and Ie: détraismel ou plate ends mea support confded with you, is accompanied by an Invisible a debors, dans le monde vil dia Injunction, in uth i is instivoed in this Ie tat de toutes Tos dissociation, Pistoire very onder which, in ite tum, conetittes kes transcendances) sen sorte en tout cas ‘you, assigning your origin or giving rise fo ‘ue Ia‘provenance de la marque reste désor you: destroy me, or rather render my sup, ‘als inouvable on méconnaissable romets port invisible tothe outside in the world les qwelle se difgure, waniigre ou indéter | [this is already the tit of all dissociation mine en son por, ett entandrae sous canot | the history of transcendence) in any ease Ie rive du dpart aussi bien que Te veférnt eae aes aan ee nance of the mark remains from: now 08 tnlocatable or unrecognizable. Promise i: Tet i be dasigured,eansfigured or rendered indeterminate in its port—and inthis word | vow will hear the shore ofthe departure as ‘well asthe referent toward which a ans.228 BESIDE PHILOSOPHY —"LITERATURE” vers loguel une tansltion se porte. Menge, bois evale me etre, porte ttangpore la en to, comme la lat dune deritare devenve ton comp: Vertue en oi. La ruse de Fajonction peut dabord se llser inspite por la sme possblit de le mort, parle danger que fit ‘cour un vbloue a tout Sze lk. Tu entends ‘ent a catastrophe. Dés les impr a méme Tera, vn ct coeur, edt de mora rele fn ti Ie mouvement (contador, me fis bien, double ateints,contronte apo tigue) de garder de Poobl cate chose qui da nde coup expose 8 la mor et se potage— fn un mot Padres, le reeat a héison, ‘comme sur Pautorute im animal rol en boule. On voudrat le prendre dans ss mains, apprendre et le comprendte, le garder pour 0, aupids de so Tu almes—gerder cela dans sa forme sin le, on dae dans Ficemplogble lit Iie da voeabl st on parla de a pest non seulement du podtigue en général Mas notre otme ne tnt pas en place dans des noms, mi ‘ime dans des mote est d'bord jeté sar es routes et dans les champs, chose gu-dela des langues, mee lll arive de #9 app lerlosquil se rssemble,rolé en boae aoprés de sol plus menact que jamate dans a re trae: cro alrs e défense per ‘itérsement tu voudrai retenr pr coeur tne forme absolument unique, un évéaement dane Pitangiblesingularté ne spare plas dealt sans ial, comme on dt, ds corps dela lee Le dst de cette insépration ab Solus, le nonabeol abla, uy respite For che ov a poesia lation is portered. Eat, drink swallow my lever, carry i, tansport itn you, ike the lav of a wilting become your body: writing in itself. The ruse ofthe injunction may ‘st ofall let tel be inspired bythe simple posibty of death bythe risk chat a vehi le poses to every finite being. You hear the Catastrophe coming. From that moment on Sprite diecly on the tat, come from the heart, the mortals desire awakens in you the movement (which i eontradictory, ou follow sme, « double retain, an apor hic constraint o guard from oblivion this ‘thing which inthe same stroke exposes it: ‘elf to death and protect itell—in a word, the addres, che retreat ofthe héesson, ike fn animal on the autoroute rolled up in a bal. One would ike to take in one's bands, undertake to lear it and understand i © ep it for oneself, nest onesll ‘You love-—eep that ints single form," ‘we could say in the iteplaceabe literality ofthe vocable if we were talking about po- tty and not only about che poetic in gen tal But oor poem doesnot hold til within ‘ames, nor even within wor. I is first of allthrown out onthe roads and in the feds, thing beyond languages, even if it some- times happens that it recalls iteelf in lan iunge, when it gathers tel p, rolled up in [ball on itself 1 is more threatened than ver in its retreat: thinks it defending itel and it loses sell teraly: you woul ike to retain by heart an sbeolutely unique form, an event whose {angle singularity no longer separates the ideality, the ideal meaning as one says from ‘the body ofthe leter. Inthe desire ofthis aolute insepration, che absolute nonab-‘Che cara poesia!” 291 | solute, you breath the origin of the poetic ‘Whence the infinite resistance tothe ans: fer of the eter which the animal, in its ‘ame, nevertheless calls out for. That isthe Aisrese of the hérsson. What does the dis toes, streze Stef, want? Sticto sensu, tO put on guard, Whence the prophecy: rans Tate me, watch, keep me Yet a while, get ning, save yoursel, les get off the auto “Ths the dream of learning by beort aies tn you. Of letting your heat be traversed by the dictated dictation. Ina single tait—and that's the impossible, a's the poematic | experience, You di not yet know the hear, ‘yu lear it thus. From this experience and guvjedisceme ma dy mot coeur. Coeut, dans from tis expression calla poem that very Ie poene “aptendee par coeur” (2 apprendre | thing thot teaches the heart, invents the ar coeur) ne nomme pls seulement a pure I heart, thet which, nally, the word heart Intérionté, la spontandié indépendane, 1a i seems to mean and which, in my language, Iiberé de safecter acivement en reprodul ' Teannot easly discem from the word itsel. | ant a'raceaiméa. La mmol di “par coe” Hear, inthe poem “lear by heart (to be | se confe comme une pre, cst plus si, 2 Jeamed by heat na longer names only pare tne certane exit de Fautomate aux ois interorty, independent spontaneity, the de le mnémotechnique, i cette liturge qui ffeedora to affect oneself scuively by repr transfert de alee que Penimal, en san nom, ‘lame pourtant. Cast la détrese du hes son. Que veat la détress, Io suess méme! stricto sensu mettre en garde, Dot la prophé He: tredus:mot, vel, garde-mot encore un ea, suv to, quttons Festoroute ‘ins elave en tll ve speed par coeur De te laser traverter le coeur pat Ia itd. Dun saul wat, ot ces Pmpossbe t est Feepiience potmatigue. Tu ne savas ‘pes encore le coeur,» Voprends ans. De cette expience ot de cette expresion. Pap pelle potme cla mame qu! aporead le coe cout invent le coeur, enfin e que Te moe de covur semble voular dite et que dans malas | | | mime en suface lammécanique,dYautomebile ducing the beloved trace. The memory of (i surprend ta passione viet sur‘ comme the "by heart” is confided ke a prayer— 4 debors: autwentig “per coear” ea alle that’s efer—to a certain exteririty ofthe mand. ‘sutomaton, to the laws of mnemotechnics, ‘Done: e coeur te bat eisance da rythm, to that liturgy that mimes mechanics onthe ‘aude des oppositions. da dedans ot i de | sue, to the automobile that surprises your hoes, de la seprésentatin consciente et de | ‘passion and bears down on you a if from an archive abandonnée. Un coeur lsba, entre et a, “ovat” or Outside: aevendig "by bear” in German.* dee sentir ou le utotrades, hors de tops | — So: your heat beats, gies the downbeat, ence, humble pede dela were, tout bas. Re the birth of zythm, beyond oppositions, be: i ‘yond outside and inside, conscions represen: {ation and the abandoned archive. Aba. i flown ther, between paths and autostades, | tuts of your presence, humble, close t0232 BESIDE PHILOSOPHY—"“LiTERATURE” tire en murmarant ne rpite jamais. Dens ‘an seal hf le pode appre pa coca) scelle ensemble sent et a etre, comamie ‘othe espazaat le temps Pour répandre en deax mots, ellipse, par sxample, ou Getion, coeur ov hérson, il Youre fale désemporer la memos, désarmer J culture, savoir ouble Ie avo, incendie a biblochéque des posiques. Lunicte dy Dodme se dete condition, te jout llébeer, tu dais commémorer 'amnése la sauvegere, voir la bis da "par coeu” Ie hoon, 1 Saveugle. Roulsen boul eras de piquant. ulnérable et dangereu, calculate et ina ape (parce qui se met en boule seatat le danger sur Foutooate expose 2 Tech. det). Pas de posme sant accident, pas de poime qui ne souvre comme une blessere, ‘mats qul nest out bessnt. Ta apellerat otme une incantation silencicuse le ble. sure phone que de ta je die apprne par coeur Ie doe lea, pour Peesentel sas aon ait dle fate le Inte faite, sane aii, Sans tava, dans le plus sobre pathos, tan |r toute production, sunt lactation {pote dehot, bénddlcion, venue de Pate ‘Rythme mate dssymetie Iya amas que 4 potme, avant toute poids. Quand, ea lew {de “pote nous avons dit "postgue”, non ‘urions di pdeser:"posmatique™ Surtout ne Ieise pas tecondair le héison dans lee que ou dans le mandge dela pies: tien 3 {ote (pica ni “posi pure”: ni sbétorigue ure, ni reine Sprache," "misnan-oewre ‘Che cos a posse” 238 the earth, low down, Reiterates) in a mur. ‘mur never epeat. In a single cipher, the oem (the leing by hear, lear it by heart) Seals together the meaning and the letter, like a rhythm spacing ou ime, In order to respond in two words elias, for example, or election, heart, héiseon, of {strice, you will have had to disable mem: ay, disarm culture, know how to forget knowledge, st fire tothe brary of poetics, ‘The uniity ofthe poem depends on this condition. You must celebrate, you have to commemorate amnesia, savaery, even the stupidity" ofthe "by hare” the hensson It binds itself: Roled up ina ball, pricy wich ‘spines, vulnenble and dangeroos,calcaating and ill-adapted [because i makes itself nto ball, sensing dhe danger on the sutoroute, it exposes itself to an secident), No poem ‘without accident, no poem that docs not open itself like a wound, but no poem that {not also just as wounding. You wil all, oem silent incantation, the aphonie wound that, of you, from you, I want to learn by Inert. I thus takes place essentially, ith ‘out one's having todo it or make ii ete itself be done, without seivity, without ‘work, in che most sober pathos,» stranger ‘wall production, especialy to cretion. The oem falls to me, benediction, coming of (or from) the other. Rhyehen but dissymmeny. ‘There is never anything but some poem, be: fore any poiesis. When, instead of poetry,” we ssid "poetic," we ought eo ave specified: "poematic." Most of ll donot let the héris: son be led back into the crs or the mena tie of potess: nothing to be done (pte), neither “pure poetry,""nor pure shetori, noe reine Sprache, nor "sewing-onlv-f uthSeetataps hoon the-work:”* Just this contamination, and this elavérité”. Seulement une contamination, Sabtergat tell, etl cazefou, ot accident. Ce tour, Te rtoumement de cate catastrophe, Le dt ape ae eee . ‘ofthe poem cites nothing it has notte its bhistlonne plas sl survient sens que tu 8 | histsonis are over, it comes along without ttendes, coupant le suf, coupont avec a | your expecting it, cutting short the breath, sero, this accident here.This tum, the 1 || 234 mnsios suosorney—“uirenatune” hc pa 38 | ' Suing wan oth eastorbe The gt Poise discursive, et surtout itirire. Dans Cutting all ties with discursive and espe i Tes cendres mamas de cette géntlopa Pes Te cially literary poetry. In the very ashes of hints pas Faigle hesson, wds bas, oat this genealogy. Not the phoeni, nt the es | bas prs dela ee. Ni sublime, ni incorporel te, but the hérisson, very lowly, lowe down, i angélique pots, et poor un temps. lose to the earth. Neither sublime, nor in i “Tu appellees désormats podme use cer corporeal angelic perhaps, and for atime. ‘sine powsio de la marque single, I si. ‘You wil cll poem from now on certain nature qui rept sa dispersion, chaque fois Passion ofthe singular mark, the signaruze fausdeld di logs, anumaine, domestique 3 ‘hat epeats its dispersion, each ime beyond the Jogos, ahoman, burly domestic, not reappropriable into the family ofthe sub Dine, ni réppropable dans Ta fale ds Sujet! an animal conver, rould en boule | tourné ver ste et ves #0, ane chose e iect: a converted animal, oled up ina bal, \ Somme, et moders, dere, pis de ater, ured toward the other and toward itself, hunt que mmm, portant ans in suny thing modest, dlscret, close to ee the earch, the humility that you sumame, arachtigoe oe che bos, quand et thus transporting yourtelf inthe name be sveule son ge ntend mis ne wi pos en Yond anane, a catachesti isson, ita amor. rows held at ready, when tis agen Bind 1 poe pet e ou es bole malt ‘hing hears bu dos not sce death coming. ! encore pour tooner sr sige aigus vers Te “he poem ean ral self wp in al, but tors peat cartes nfchir la langue ou ies sll in order to tur its pointed sigas ie fa potse mats i ese rapport jamal 8 fovand the outetde. Tobe nue, ican refeet Iutmime, ine se met jamate de hme Tenguage, oF speak poetry, bu it never re comme ces eagint porteurs de mort. Son Tats back to ite, fe never moves by itself / frénement interme toujours ow dele le | ke those machine, binges of deat, Is | ‘oir abva, Te aupeésde ot dans eto vent always interupes of derail absolute tle, Ce “démon du eoeur” jamais ne se ras- | nore, antotelie being in proxiatry ¢o semble, il gare pute (dre os mente 1 | itll This “demon ofthe hear” never sath chiquter parce qui view Sur sts off the tack (dlrum or mana), it ex poses itself to chance, ie would rather let Self be tom to pieces by wht bears down ‘upon it | po chan isa pl | stat ogee thes ns a and236 wESiDE PIILOSOPHY—"'LITERATURE” Sans sae: ly a petted podme, 2 qui se ase, mais en’en érs jamais. Un pote Jemele gn mate, autre signe. Leet {wa venue doce dsr opprendes par coon Tanda pour ve risumer @ som popes suppor. don sane support extéreu, Sans substance. ans sue, abe de Péciture en soe "par oe” 20 ase ie ox dela du cos di sexe, (dea bouche ot des yeu, face les bord it (ehappe ax mains a Fentends pein, mals ‘nous append le coeur, Piliaton, gage lee tion conf en béeag, il peut se pendve d imports quel mot a chose, vivante 02 fon, at nots de atisson par exemple, ene ie mor, etme dela mat ou a pes Jour, apocalypse dstat, propre et commune, publique e seca "Mats le podme dont eu parle, ares, on ne Fe jamais nomné ais, i uss rb ww viens de le die. Ce qu'il fallte dé monte. Reppeletol la question: "Qu'estce (foes (he, wae ist, istorin, pisteme, Philospbial. “Qu'eit-ce que.” pleare a dis Darton du potme—une gute cetastrophe £2 fenoungant ce gui est tel qu'il est une ques tio eae la natssance de la prose. “Che est a posit” Without a subject: poem, pechap there is some and pethape it eoves itself, bat Tnever ‘write any. A poem, Tnever signs) it. The ‘other signs. The Ii only a the coming of this desire: to lam by heart. Stretched en ‘ered forth to the point of subouming its om spony thus witout extra sopo, without substance, without subject, Taber Rts se by enees itself te elected beyond the body, sex, mouth, land eyes iteraes the borders, slips through ‘he hands, you can barely hear it, but it teaches us the heat. Fliaton eke of elec tion confided as legacy, it can atach itself to any word at all eo the thing, living o not, to the name of hériszon, for example, be toven life and death, at nightfall oat day Teak, dlstrcted. apocalypse, proper and ‘common, public and seeret. Sut the poem you ae talking about, you are geting off the tack, it has never ‘been mane thas or so arity. Tou just tad it. Which had to be dermonstrated, Recall the question: “Whats 1" (eet, was it, storia, epsteme, Dilosophiol. "What is --.2 laments the Aisappearance ofthe pocin—another catas tuophe, By announcing chat which is just 38 itis a question salutes the bith of prose Translated by Peggy Karmuf