La Quête infinie de l'autre rive. Épopée en trois chants, short-listed for the Prix Mahogany and the Prix des Découvreurs, received the Prix Lucienne Gracia-Vincent 2017 under the auspices of Fondation Saint-John Perse. Staged at La Mézière in May 2017 by Chrystel Petitgars, La quête infinie de l’autre rive is also available as a CD read by Yvan Amar. Other notable readings of the poem include that of Bernard Gabay and Sonia Emmanuel.
Ever since they row songless no heave-ho
For how long . . . to know . . . how many seasons
how many island mirages the wind will sow
did they row past pitch-drunk and swollen with spindrift
A foggy memory of what-it-is-to-have-one's-feet-on-the-ground
and eyelids fluttering
they heed nothing at present but the wave that goes
slips away
and returns
These peasants made themselves belated sailors
their bodies cadence them
to cleave with the oar's tainted tip
the purple mounds of the great salt savannah
which no furrow marks
where no seed takes root
(But to say the sea
earthly words were little suited)(translated by Alexander Dickow)