Je suis un kilomètre [English translation]

[Dominique A]

I am one kilometer and I am a neighbourhood

around my Oriental navel

of Belleville1

[Kent]

Golden leather of the Sentier2

Exquisite corpses3 in the Père Lachaise4

More zombies5 in the Gare de Lyon6

Saint Martin, rowing champion7

Saint Denis, shagging haggler8

[D.A]

I am ten kilometers and I am leaving town

on its ring boulevard

like concentric slip roads

[K]

An automotive arena

mixed-blood9 bleak suburbs

small detached houses with their skylights10

[D.A]

Replete houses along the Marne11

[K]

two steps to the airport12

I am one hundred kilometers, and I am the provinces

green under the cabin

indifferent to the plane13

[D.A]

underlined by a thin trail,

a still spared landcape,

where the Industry moves its bowels.

[K]

Between meadows and firs,

now see the future (go) up in smoke14

[D.A]

I am one thousand kilometers and I am alien

to the landcapes I cross,

an object of commerce

in targeted currencies

[K]

I no longer hear people talking

[D.A]

I hear harmonizing sounds

[K]

I hear indistinct rumors

[D.A & K]

I tend to drift away from things.

1. A neighbourhood in northeastern Paris, where many immigrants from places like China, North Africa and Central Europe settled in various eras. That's also where I happen to live :).2. north of Paris center, with many tailor workshops and gold changers3. don't know if this parlour game is known to every English speaker, but the idea is to have each player write a bit of sentence, fold the sheet to hide it and pass it on. After a while the sheet is unfolded and the resulting story/poem read aloud4. most famous cemetery in Paris, where Jim Morrisson is buried, along with a few other minor celebs like Molières, Rousseau, Voltaire...5. lit "living remorse" but that sounds like "re-morts vivants", something like "again living deads"6. one of the four main train stations in Paris, serving the southeast.7. alludes to the eponymous canal running through northern Paris, though I never saw anyone actually rowing on it :).8. the St Denis street is famous for its numerous hookers9. for those who spent the last 10 years between Mars and Jupiter, the French suburbs are places of social relegation, where immigrants and proles tend to be gathered by destitution, unemployment, casual racism, etc.10. up until the 70's most suburbs consisted of small houses like that, progressively replaced by community flats11. a river running close to Paris. Famous for the "guinguettes", open-air restaurant and dance halls where the impressionist painters gathered in the 19th century. A rather wealthy neighbourhood nowadays12. The famous Charles de Gaulle international airport, not exactly in line with the Marne, rather more to the north13. "zinc" is slang for "plane", like "crate" or "kite"14. "en fumée" (up in smoke) sounds like "enfumé" (smoky), implying something like "pollution is destroying our future"

• Artist:Kent
• Album:Panorama (2009)