Translated by DENIS HIRSON
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
My mother put them away
in a drawer
between her own
and those of my father
mine were embroidered
with animals for each day
and week
and night
and the night after
one colour per day
Monday red Tuesday green Wednesday blue
Thursday black Friday yellow Saturday grey
and Sunday golden
you have your handkerchief
my mother explained to me
knotted at all four corners to cover your head
one knot in the corner
for you to remember
and then you can cry
and sometimes blow your nose
and when you leave
you can wave us goodbye
Sylvie Durbec’s recent publications include Marseille: éclats et quartiers (Marseille, fragments and quarters), which won the prestigious Jean Follain Prize of the City of Saint-Lô; Sanpatri (Nohomeland); Soutine; and L’idiot(e) devant la peinture (Idiot/I look at paintings).
Denis Hirson was brought up in South Africa and lives just outside Paris, France; he teaches at the École Polytechnique. The latest of his seven books is the novel The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street. He is also the editor of the 2014 anthology In the Heat of Shadows, South African poetry 1996–2013.
