REPAIR / MICHEL BUTOR

for Edmund Alleyn

break lightbeam stitch

rip

stop!

a drop of milk

burn nickel a drop of milk

soldering

a long time ago a

drop of oil

black to sleep I row away

stitch

stop!

a drop of honey

white tube slow transfusion

split

hold it

a drop of alcohol

grey chromium split

rupture

I can't stand it

a drop of tincture

violet to die v

break

I can't

a drop of acid

indigo electrode I'm trembling

burn

I don't want

a drop of lead

blue steel a drop of blood

a drop of mercury

no

a drop of ink

green to dream rupture

doctor

z

I'm sleeping

yellow needle insufflation

the doctor

y

I'm sailing

orangish copper I'm burning

have mercy

x

I'm swimming

red to live u

don't hurt me too much

hold it

I'm dropping off

nickel probe break spare me w I row now

to sleep platinum a drop of water leave me alone I can't stand it I'm trembling

chrome to continue I'm suffering cure me v I'm burning up

to die forceps injection help me I can] I'm suffering

steel silver scorching don't just leave me like this I'm panting

I don't want to endure t I breathe deeply to dream I hear

t valve I pant I shudder copper I drain way

no gold burn I bleed to live I'm going under

don't just leave me like this drain I relax I turn over platinum t

help me titanium branch off u to continue

cure me throttle I hear w silver x

leave me uranium answer y to endure z

save me scalpel I shudder no gold injection

don't hurt me too much germanium measure out I don't want titanium insufflation

have pity blister I drain away I can't uranium slow transfusion

the doctor tin take aim I can't stand it germanium innoculation

doctor joint I bleed hold it tin resection

projection tungsten hold it electrification tungsten cauterization

pulverization knuckle I'm going under cicatrization 1 rotation

stimulation throttle accelerate ventilation slight impregnation

calcination oxygen I turn over evolution 2 sublimation

All hail in passing our mother the Milky Way

sublimation wire cease calcination a touch of stimulation

evolution dial injection pulverization 3 projection

impregnation motor cut hold it still somewhat red

a drop of ink pump insufflation once more 4 orangish

ventilation wound sleep useless only a bit more yellow

a drop of mercury rip perfusion green 5 blue

rotation soldering breathe indigo 6 violet

a drop of lead stitch innoculation grey 7 white

cicatrization split lie down black 8

gently

a drop of acid rupture perforation

a long time ago

9

he sleeps

cauterization break get up

it was a long time ago

10

he moves

a drop of tincture heat resection

far from here

11

very far from here

electricity a fibula

perhaps this was in some other world

12

probably this was in some other world

z black electrification

unquestionably this was in some other world

13

it couldn't be anything else but some other world

a drop of alcohol b tibia

I was wandering upon a long river

14

along shores covered with dark green trees

resection white cauterization

I was rowing

I sleep

I wasn't alone

y c kneecap

in a flimsy canoe

wound

and we glided in tranquility upon the waters

a drop of honey grey cicatrization

while frightening the wild ducks and otters

I sail on

amid fragrances of pine-needles

perforation d femur

and there was in the sky a star named the sun

rip

which descended very gently among the peaks

x violet rotation

and amid the reeds onto the sand

I swim

some lively lizards and gentle turtles too

a drop of oil e sternum

slight

soldering

a little

innoculation indigo ventilation

just a little more

I'm dropping

off a little more still

w

—translated by Michael Benedikt

Original format: Single sheet, 8 by 40 inches, accordion-folded.

Adapted for the web by Andrew Stafford.
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