Mary-Laure Zoss

Le Noir du ciel

«Au coeur de la nuit on coule à pic, agrippant le fond du temps, et presque pas de mots».

The poetry of Mary-Laure Zoss, who published this first darkly intense work at the age of 52, clearly belongs to the tradition of Swiss-French poets Gustave Roud and Philippe Jaccottet, and is heavily influenced by the likes of Yves Bonnefoy and Antoine Emaz (who wrote the preface to the book). The dense and shadowy poetic voice ploughs, both literally and metaphorically, through the muddy landscape of «Le Noir du ciel» and on into Zoss’ next three books.

The sound of the poetic feet tramping across the page evokes the darkness, and denounces it, without ever really being able to control it. Tired silhouettes of Beckettian figures endure damp winters (a winter date is noted at the end of each chapter) in the search for a light at the end of the tunnel: «même quand le soir borde la buée des doubles vitres, elles (les lampes) brillent au crépuscule – pour un moment seulement – au-dessus de la route» (even when the evening seeps into the condensation of the double-glazed windows, (the lamps) at dusk shine only – for a brief moment – above the road).

(Pierre Lepori, trans. by Andrea Mason)

Translation of title: The Darkness of the Sky

Empreintes, Moudon 2007

ISBN: 978-2-940133-90-1