Rue d'Amsterdam by Jacques Roubaud
PN Review 182, July - August 2008
Rue d’Amsterdam
Translated by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop
Rue d'Amsterdam goes down goes up
Goes up and down it does, my street
I go up or go down Rue d'Amsterdam
Go down go up my Amsterdam Street
We say we go up say we go down
Streets that go up and streets going down
Say it even of hesitant streets
Or streets on absolutely level ground
We go up streets on the macadam
Walk on the sidewalk down the street
So I go down my Rue d'Amsterdam
So I climb my Amsterdam Street
What is it goes down and what goes up
Goes down or not in every street?
Is it the houses that go up and up
Or falling fall toward the bottom of the street?
It's the houses, they go by number
The one on the door that faces the street
If the street goes down so do the numbers
And if the numbers go up so does the street
But why do we say that numbers go up
Climbing from naught to infinite height?
Because numbers form a street of numbers
The street of whole numbers outdistancing night
Long indeed the high road of numbers
The high abstract road, no end to that way
You go up you go down you count and recount
The world-long night where all numbers are gray
But maybe our streets are just shadows
Shadows of numbers that fall in the rain
Remnants and ends of the street of numbers
Going up going down while our lives remain
From The Form of a City Changes Faster, Alas, Than the Human Heart by Jacques Roubaud, translated by Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, published by Dalkey Archive Press, 2006. The original French edition was: La forme d'une ville change plus vite, hélas, que le cœur des humains. Cent cinquante poèmes. 1991-1998 (Gallimard, Paris, 1999).
Born in 1932, Jacques Roubaud is a French poet, writer and mathematician. Roubaud earned two PhDs – one in mathematics and one in French literature – and served in the French army during the Algerian War. He has written more than 20 books and has won multiple awards, including the Grand Prix National de la Poésie and the French Academy Grand Prix de Littérature Paul-Morand.
Keith Waldrop is an American poet, academic and translator. He has authored numerous books of poetry and prose, and is co-editor of Burning Deck Press.
Rosmarie Waldrop is an American poet, novelist, essayist and translator. Born in Germany, she is co-editor and publisher of Burning Deck Press.
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