“My mother’s death”
Written by Nicole Laurent-Catrice
Translated from the French by Dominique Hecq
Narrated by Kristine Doll
France
My mother’s death
foreshadowing my own
that my daughter will live
as I lived yours
Long line of women
whose story you’d tell me in the kitchen
Long seam of sons and threads
some ripping us
so others could stitch us back
long red thread running up
step by step
from grandmother to grandmother
blood flowing
from moon to moon
for pain and gain
blood loss
only to give life to new blood.
Nicole Laurent-Catrice was born in North of France. She organized meetings of poets in Brittany and produced programs about poetry in the radio for fifteen years. She published about twenty books of poems (in Belgium and France, but so translated in Sofia and Kiev) two novels, and some essays.. She collaborated with artists on fifteen books. She translated and published twenty poets especially from the Spanish language but also from European countries such as: Portugal, Ireland, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Italy, alone or with someone else. She was invited to international festivals of poetry, in Mexico, Italy, Romania, Dublin, Alicante, Vilnius, Medellin, Caracas.
Dominique Hecq grew up in the French-speaking part of Belgium. An author and translator, she now lives on unceded sovereign Wurundjeri land, Melbourne. Hecq writes across genres and disciplines and sometimes across tongues. Her creative works include a novel, five collections of stories, and twelve books of poetry. Among other honors, Hecq won the inaugural AALITRA Prize for Translation.