1.
I will fill the emptiness in your eyes, says Ulysses to his men
and you will see
We'll bend the moon to polish our trembling lips
in lavender honey
And like children with our fingers outstretched
we'll rename the salty meridian

Far from the sorrow which hollows out the body's gaze to form itself
Far from death . . . What's to keep us say his companions

And twenty years later, Ulysses returns alone.
At the Sailor's Cafe he buys rounds of drinks for everyone,
and says, I will fill the emptiness in your eyes.

                                2.
She was before him suppliant as an echo
He had sailed into the bay of desire
(our eyes burning)

She stole his breath in the sleep-moistened dawn
He explored her body while the ports despaired
(we tore each other away to encounter our dreams)

His men grumbled under the wand
They moaned for homes sculpted out of mud
--don't leave again
He rediscovered faint shadows in the solitude of reminiscence

She says stay in the beauty of my language
We have awoken

Translated from the French
by Joanna Goodman

    Translator's note: These two poems are excerpted from a section titled "Cafe Marine" in Tengour's L'arc et la cicatrice. They are based upon the travels of Ulysses.