Danielle Collobert

survival (1978)

the first 4 lines of the english translation by Michael Tweed are

I time of what
the flood
wave riding a gaze
unflaggingly from I liquid marked red

I read word by word, line by line:

1
High time
The highest point of the poem
Me time. My time.
I time transitive
I time trans
I is an article
I is a particle
1 timing 2 timing
I is pronounced A
A is pronounced I
I is pronounced je
je is pronounced
time of I
time for I
Not I time what
I time of what
Not what
of what
genitive generating what
what genitive
what of it
what of I

2
the is an article
the is a particle
the is the
the is flood
time is flood
of what think
the flood

3
wave riding or reading a
gaze
he is a gaze
she is a gaze

4
a flag is a flood
unfloodingly and unflaggingly
relationships from of, of from
I text
eye liquid is tears or watering
the eye is aqueous marked red
blood is flood
liquid marked
lick is liquid
mark is marked

then return to the (english) title:

Survival
Ival
I something
I verb
sur is on
sur is on the poem
v and I
v and I and v
v is point
two vs are pointing
two vs are pointing to the poem
I is I
al is I
val is I
ival is I
vival is I
sur vival is I
sur is sure
sur is on is sure is title
entitle
on title
titling on
a title is a tile
tiling on a roof

everything is survival

This text messenger suggested by a presentation by Frances Kruk. Some notes from that presentation:

role of body in and as an I in writing body with no I

positing I as construct makes removal possible = body is construct

broken I = broken body