de 33 sonnets plats

Frédéric Forte



il regardait des chaussures · aux vitrines son reflet · donnait des signes d'usure · dégonflait / à vue d'œil des particu · les de sa voix se répandaient · autour de lui il articu · lait des dé / buts de sonnets sa langue · c'était sa ça-langue · qu'est-ce que c'était / dans dix jours on voudrait savoir · quel quoi à faire et se pousser pour voir · qu'il faisait chaud l'été







et si le mystérieux recèle · le moindre attrait · le moindre attrait · est dans le voile / de toi que je voudrais lever · lentement si possible · prenant le temps pour cible · et jamais achevé / envisager de loin · le point · de ton corps / ne pas faire moins · être le témoin · le décor








monsieur l'explorateur · quel est le programme · est-ce provoquer le drame · ou bien faire l'ange consolateur / moi si j'étais prestidigitateur · je ne prendrais jamais un gramme · et même je fondrais à la rame · sur les avis les aviateurs / en poche mon astéroïde · n'aurait pas une ride · et m'indiquerait le nord / mais faudrait vraiment que je me décide · à changer de guide · ou changer de bord 







le premier mot est gong · mais malgré mes essais · mes efforts je ne sais · quel est le secong / est-ce le mot tong · le mot insensé · le mot qu'on lit dans les pensées · de l'autre lorsqu'on goûte sa tongue / tu souris · je vois bien que tu souris · à l'image / mais c'est pas moi c'est le poème · qui déroule son schème · et ses désarrimages





dans un monde parallèle · je / conçois des sonnets de tailles différentes

Read the English translation

Listen to the sonnets read in the original French by the author:

Frédéric Forte's 33 sonnets plats, which I've translated as 33 Sonnets Flattened, is a classically Oulipian text, composed of thirty-three flattened sonnets squeezed horizontally on the page rather than displayed vertically. Forte explores the potentiality of one of the oldest western poetic forms and achieves linguistic feats only possible in a flattened space, where meter is pushed aside in favor of an intricate and changing rhyme scheme. The fourteen lines are separated by dots or slashes indicating a sonnet's traditional two quatrains and two tercets, and Forte concentrates only on rhyme, recreating what a sonnet is or has the potential to be. Forte has compared this book to freeze-dried food that expands and takes on its true shape in water—his sonnets take on their full potential when they're read by a reader who recognizes the classical form within the flat space. The difficulty in translating 33 sonnets plats comes from this fidelity to a rhyme scheme that demands a certain musicality, a playfulness that can't be forced, and that loses all power if it comes off as unnatural.

I had to figure out what my goal as a translator of 33 sonnets plats really was. I wanted to preserve the musicality and flow, not necessarily to keep the same words or lines, but to prioritize the rhyme and only that, and let everything else fall into place after. My justification for this is that, for the most part, Forte was not thinking about his lines, about what they would mean to the reader, about what his poem would communicate to its audience. Instead, he often let the rhyme scheme guide him and choose his words for him, and so I had to do the same.

Frédéric Forte was born in 1973 in Toulouse where he studied communication and sociology. He now lives in Paris where he does residencies, public readings, and workshops as an Oulipo representative. He is one of the few members of the Oulipo to be born after its inception, and reading their works, most notably Queneau's Exercises du style, had a big influence on him and his writing. After completing the bilingual N/S with the English Oulipian Ian Monk, and going on to publish his own Opéras-minute (forthcoming from Burning Deck), Forte was adopted into the group as its thirty-fifth member. To date Forte has published five books, two translations, and numerous chapbooks.

Emma Ramadan studied comparative literature at Brown University and is now pursuing a master's in cultural translation at The American University of Paris. Her translation of Anne Parian's Monospace is forthcoming from La Presse, and her translation of Anne F. Garréta's Sphinx is forthcoming from Deep Vellum. Her writing has appeared in journals such as Recess, Bluestem, and Gigantic Sequins.