In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start,

In the prison of his days

Free
Teach the free man how to praise

W.H. Auden

Poetry
Christian Prigent
Free Poetry publishes essays and poetry by todays
leading poets. These chapbooks are available free of Translated by Adrian Kien
charge and without copyright. The editor encourages the
reproduction of this chapbook and its free distribution,
An Anatomy Lesson
ad infinitum.

For further information please contact the editor at: Vol. 5 No. 3 February 2010

http://www.boisestate.edu/english/mfa/freepoetry.htm
 Adrian Kien lives in Boise, ID where he teaches composition
and poetry at Boise State University. He has also taught English
in Dijon and Chambery, France. His collection Who is There was
Une leon dAnatomie recently published as an ebook at Blazevox.org.

par Christian Prigent

traduit par Adrian Kien Christian Prigent was born in 1945 in Bretagne. He is the au-
thor of over thirty works of poetry, fiction and criticism. He gives
readings of his work regularly throughout France. Most recently,
he appears in a book-length interview and discussion of his work
called, Christian Prigent, quatre temps by Bndicte Gorrillot from
Argol Editions.

Il serait sot de mourir dans le thter anatomique.

Bchner The collection Une leon dAnatomie (An Anatomy Lesson)
was published by P.O.L. in 1993 in crit au Couteau (Written with
a Knife). This work seeks, much like Blake, to cut poetry from
all that is not poetry the mundane and monotonous doings of
our bodies and egos. We slips and explodes as we negotiates the
intestinal twistings of language and bodies. The rhymes and puns
in his poems are labyrinthine. He seeks to lose you in holes where
perhaps you will achieve self-annihilation or at least some good
honest self-deprecation.
 IX

For,
When the body gives up its hold,
a new figure appears, that of Man.
Hlderlin
(sick of this
papa
pooh-poohed
see bone
An Anatomy Lesson
see dead
by Christian Prigent
that is: translated by Adrian Kien

the scatterbrain
that asks (and casts
your life your sad bag
body
into the rattle can)

and without that without Itd be pretty funny to die on the anatomical stage.
this cowl Bchner
we lie
we eat
we flibber
we hang
between the blood hook
of life and the
snot drop of un
consciousness

where the meat

encoccyxes itself
and simmers)
 IX
Translators Introduction:
Car,
Lorsque le corps ce point se dtache,
I speak the living and animated speech of one who is knowledge- Une figure sitt resort, de lHomme.
able and I will call the written oration of it a kind of image, so Hlderlin
says Alexander Benedictus, in a defense of the Anatomical Theater. (tes sap da
It is not enough to simply look or read about the body. We must ppre
experience it. In a similar way we experience our bodies through tap
poetry forming our mouths to speak a body. o los sort
tu vois ta mort
the showing itself
the human laid open and why cest--dire a:
a run-through form of
the creator in barbarian terms lcervel
anatomizing the body qui taxe (et tosse
and its ritual space ta vie ta cosse
outre
We enter the Anatomical Theater to speak of I and the body. We dans lacoustique
will speak from the things themselves, and not ideas about those du trou oblique)
things. So that when we mention depth of character, our only depth
is that of the chest cavity, the length of a femur, the radius of a et sans a sans
skull. Reach your hand up into the ribs and feel the heart. ce cal
on ment
Here is your measure on mange
(of man) on ne sait pas
a fingered depth on pend
by vivisection we come
to di - au crochet dsang
section. de vie la
coule dsinus lin
These short abysses are all we can read in the language of the conscience
things themselves. Yet how deeply we want to fall into them; head-
first, screaming for God in the clouds of a nuclear explosion. o la viande
sencoccysse
With our meat hooks et cuit)
 with our scalpels we will
celebro the body
its ritual and performance:

Here churns the G.I. train.

Here the humors pass the living
fruit on the branch. An expulsion
of breath -

We reach our hands (our hands!) to pull

an apple from the bough to reveal the amazing and
divine workmanship of God the Creator (Benedictus).

Here, then, is my lampshade of eyelids. I wear it at parties when

God is a wind. If this seems clichd and predictable, it is. If my
words have found purchase in the feet of man, then they are
pegged to the earth and its natural course. I cannot stray from that
with which I am so familiar.

The knife reflects a torch

flicker to illuminate
the first cutting a see
ping hole
 Prigents Introduction:

Cest crit en face danciennes planches dEcorchs.

La chair peine dpose, les corps prennent bouffonnement

la pose plastique.

Devant a, la langue tombe sur ce qui la dchire.

Et rit (jaune).

Reste un rictus, qui rature lpure anatomique (le sac de peau

et de mots, la surface lisse, le dessin clos, le savoir positif).
 VIII Prigents Introduction:

An This is written along side Skinnings from the middle ages.

axe
ran The flesh painstakingly removed, the body assumes an absurd
up his ass statuesque pose.

from the breath bladder cavern In the face of this, the tongue falls on that which it strips away.
to the sacrum. And laughs (forcefully).

So dizzy on his toesy woesies Whats left is a grin, that annuls the anatomic sketch (the skin
A scream chock-a-blocked sack and words, the smooth surface, the finished draft, the positive
open. thinking).

Scruff to scrotum
stood forever
in this stature
to suckle the skeyes.

Oh say that,
that words endure
in the writing

of stuck-up asses
from whom fall, bones,
the sore words.
 VIII

a vint au sas,
laxe,

au sacrum.

Depuis le vertige cale

un rle dhomme

sur ses pdales.

Nuque et queue,
dans la stature,
eurent
tter les cyeux.

a, a dure, mots,
dans lcriture,

lair des lombes

do tombent, os,
les maux.
 I

Lhle-capot des drugstorms!

Son zizi mazout!
Son ptit calon dermeux!

Voil un homme!

Se dboutonne labdo:
strip gogo!

Sous sa peau: veine norme!

In cauda: con en forme!

Et, sur son torse,

Limpeccable force
des trognons, horizons
des horizons!

Lhomo, (quil dit)

que ce soit vide!
qua sallge le bide!

- Sous la peau du tronc:

ltron! loeuvide!
 VII I

For the gist Hail the tan tarp of drugstorms!

is this His greasy pipi pokes out!
a vertebra His little derma drawers!
bone erect
Heres a man!
the sciatic
Strip the abadaba:
makes us stand take it off daddy!
and we are off sawed
Under his skin: the big vein writhes!
thats all. In Cauda: pull the shit chain!

And on his etcha pecs,

the impeccable
oaks blow in breezes,
blow out
poof horizons!

Man (he says)

empty the bile bucket!
let loose this belly fruit!

Beneath the skin trunks:

the big turd! the evegguate!
 VII

Car le gt
fut une vertbre
qui sest mise bander

pour

la sciatique

On fut debout
et a nous scia

cest tout.
 II
Its me, Mr. No Ho,
see my derma-tarp
Ni sexe ni see my flay-me blade.
barbaque:
juste graffiti, From my sack
the spud eyes cry.
Peau tire.
Capot lev. This is how I huff
fumes
Lex-corps, chi, tangled-me-fumes.
torche un trou, rien:
Running full steam
Moiti de cul, for the jizz white tomb
flau dpaule. and its funnel cloud cakes.

Le corps na pas ces trous.

Car Latomique anatomie,

en mie niqu,
nest qubombyx
neutre on.

Nul ne dessine a.
 II
Trourien, cest moi:
voil ma peau
et voil mon couteau. No sex no
chops:
Cest par mon sac que jutent just graffiti.
les trous dpatate.
Skinned.
Cest humer, Hood popped.
en vapeur,
en cheveau vapeur. Flay this shit corpse,
sop open the hole; whats he got in there:
A toute pompe
vers le blance dtombe o Some ass
sont les trombes. and a shoulder scourge.

The body is not these pus pits.

For, the atomic anatomy,

at its grubby middle meat,
is nothing but a nothing,
a neutron
bug bomb Boom!

No one made this.

The utra-skinned!
The frippery of his tripery!

Mr. Unhared-
from-his-hutch!

Plucked
from his shuck!

The neutral one!

The anti-I!

singing:
Lhyperdpoil!
Lfripier dson tripier!

Le dlapin
dson propre clapier!

Larrach total
la vie dbocal!

Le neutre On!
Celui qui pas Je!

dis:
 III VI

Scie des troncs, Hi, its me!

torsion. Me! the rat accomplice!
Me! the neutron bomb!
Bras cass. Me! the kill switch flipped!
Bras trop court.
Mr. Self-Flensed!
Porc, scion dcrne, Mr. No-Skin-Escaped-from-the-cangues-by-his-
nuque arque, tongue-and-chin!
casqu cul.
The Grand-Masturbater!
- Dehors, les corps!
The extra-mortal!
Vers lexigu, Barthelemy,
le boyau, his own enemy!

quenfile ma soeur, Mr. Churn-Outs

of creep batter!
la peur.
 VI III

Moi lami des rats! Saw the trunks,

Moi lbombe neutrons! twistem off.
Moi lnoeud du tronqu!
The snapped limb.
Lauto-dpec! The stubbed limb.
Lexit des cangues
en peau dlangue! Pork-apart, uh oh, skull-sprout
bandied scruff
Le Grand-Masturbatueur! of his brown skid lid.

Lmortel et demi! Be off you bodies!

Barthlemy,
de soi lennemi! Off to the miniscule,
the gut alley jewel,
Lmis dla baratte
en pt deffroi! that pricks my sis,

with fear.
 IV V, 5

Rvrence! A vastness, beyond self,

Rve! a sky, outside self,
Errance! like lights-out inside.
Raie faite rance!
Meat rags
Cou tranch trou ape pouches
de boucherie. of pustrami, bet

Et sa bouche rit that they still

de ntre plus l. spew,
our dearest soul stuff,
Mais l-bas, hurlant: ooze our deepest wounds.

Changez de viande! Spurts: intestine

Zyeutez ltrou dla viande!
Rvrence aux trous de la viande!
spindles, networks,
destiny, lost
thoughts of those
tanned by anatomy:

the evegguate!
the evacuate shell!
 V, 5 IV

Enorme, hors lhomme, Worship!

le ciel, dehors, Wish!
comme dedans lagonie. Wandering shit!
Made of putrid fish!
Linges en viande
singent les poches Throat cut cake hole
de bidoche, sache of butchery.

que a crache And his mouth laughs,

encore, hee, hee, to be so sawed off.
les chries,
les dchirures. But from the balcony they jeer:

Jets: fuseaux Take back this pitted barfroast!

dintestins, rseaux, Deliver us from this barbeque!
destin, loubli
Worship the meat pits!
des mes
tannes danatomie:

loeuvide!
loeuvide!
 V, 1 V, 4

Cest un couple dcoup

l sur leau
au large est leau
haume lev des vagues
racines des cieux
y a les projos du jet
de sperme cleste sur
leurs crnes
et pourtant calme plat
Oh bones Oh meat
of red calf sap
and the sea spread open
the beam of light
leads to the world you feign
to touch
but through spasms
like when you punch
yourself in the face hard

nues laves de tout oiseau

sauf ( la vote de
charbon)
la bonne chair des yeux que crve
un soleil cru

V, 2

Les muscles sont fou

tus
entre los et ltal sus
pendus
aux crocs
en viands dhommes

reste une jambe

la trame
le calme pour les petits
bateaux
 V, 4 V, 1

A couple uncoupled
Oh, les os et la viande on the water
le sang dun veau Oh the broad water
et derrire est la mer
helm raised from the waves
la rampe de lespace-lumire roots of heavens
le monde quonques on ne
touche the sky spurts
celestial jism on
sinon dun jet shoot their skulls
quand on sappuie le poing
sur les yeux - fort and still the flat calm

clouds bird peckered clean

except for (on the coal
sky)
the pretty eyeballs popped
by the harsh sun

V, 2

The muscles have flubbed

off / all
between bones and the butcher stall
hangs
the manmeat
hung
by the fang

one leftover leg

the crude network
the calm of oarless
dinghies
 V, 3 V, 3

Et cest sur los quon tombe And one stumbles on the bone
du tronc des eaux from the trunk of the waters
la racine du ciel at the root of the sky

les brandes chaudes the most desolate wildernesses

sont les choses du Coeur are those of the heart

voil les chiards these are the shitheads

accrochs aux heures hanged by hours

le cul sabl the raspy bungle

accabls dun caca brimming blistered
caca
aux cloques
de lossature sacre of sacred ossature
le rhum du bas the rotgut rum
brome grabat bromine flea beds

- ils lont -theyve stuck themselves together

coll aux mottes with lumps of clay
en rhizomes into rhizomes
les hommes men
les atom bundle homes
paquets datomes