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Autobiography, a Poetry Reading

Published by Ivan de Monbrison or Иван де Монбризон at May 28, 2024
Categories
  • Poetry
  • Poetry Reading
Tags
  • audiobiography
  • Ivan de Monbrison
  • poetry
  • poetry reading
  • self-reflection
Reflection - autobiography - image of mirror on dressing table

Image created onCanva

Autobiography by Ivan de Monbrison, read by Sue Cook

Tomorrow time.
You don’t know;
a mirror opens.
You pass to the other side;
you see the reflection of a window
in another window.
You see someone pulling a curtain,
you see a shadow.
It could be a woman.
It could be a man.
There are two light bulbs shining in the room
like two fixed eyes in a reflection.
Already the person has disappeared
and there is a thud in your head.
It’s like the sound of time passing.
It’s like the echo that would reach you
in advance of your own future death.
People are working somewhere
in the building where you live
but the world is still.
Whatever they do, the world stands still.
Do you remember when you were a child?
You used to go to the museum
alone in the city.
You were so young, and so small still;
you kept watching silent statues
without understanding what there was to see –
statues four thousand years old.
A lonely child lost in a museum.
And you came out alone with lots of images in your head
that probably meant nothing,
like most images.
And in the evening you read stories,
you read books,
you learned about the lives of human beings
who died a long time ago.
You lived through their lives. 
It was more than forty years ago now.
Death is so close and your childhood is slipping away.
It has almost disappeared
like a ship over the horizon,
as if you had been left stranded alone
on the land of some shore,
waiting in vain for its
unlikely return on a fine day
within time.


Translation

Автобиография

Завтра, Время , ты не знаешь, зеркало открывается, ты проходишь с другой стороны, ты видишь отражение окна в другом окне, ты видишь, как кто-то дергает занавеску, ты видишь тень, это может быть женщина или может быть мужчиной, два лампочки сияют в комнате как два вытаращенных глаза в отражении уже человек исчез и в твоей голове раздается глухой шум это похоже на шум проходящего времени это похоже на эхо которое дойдет до тебя в преддверии твоей собственной будущей смерти, люди работают где-то в здании где ты живешь, но мир неподвижен, что что бы они ни делали, ты помнишь когда в детстве ты ходил в музей в городе ты был таким маленьким очень маленьким и ты смотрел на статуи не понимая толком что видеть в них статуи четыре тысячи лет ребенок один потерялся в музее а ты вышел из музея один с образами в голове что наверно ничего не значили как  все  образы , а вечером ты читал рассказы ты читал книги ты узнавал о жизни людей которые давно умерли ты жил их жизнью, это было более сорока лет назад, теперь смерть так близка, и твое детство уходит во времени оно почти исчезло как корабль на горизонте, как будто ты остался в полном одиночестве на суше на каком-то берегу, напрасно ожидая его маловероятного возвращения в один прекрасный день, во времени. 


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Ivan de Monbrison or Иван де Монбризон
+ postsBio

Ivan de Monbrison is a schizoid writer from France born in 1969 and affected by various types of mental health disorders. He has published some poems in the past, he's mostly an autodidact.

Find Ivan on Twitter.

  • Ivan de Monbrison or Иван де Монбризон
    The Other Day

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2 Comments

  1. ABCs of Spring in the North, an Acrostic Poem says:
    June 19, 2024 at 2:07 am

    […] Autobiography – Poetry Reading […]

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  2. A Walk Through the Museum - A Special Magazine Issue says:
    December 16, 2025 at 6:45 pm

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