Tango de Montreal by Godin

do you see that?

as i was wandering around montreal, i kept seeing this stencil’d word everywhere! look closer.

voilà. this was on st-laurent and saint-viateur.

there it is again! this was at st-laurent and bernard.

and i was all, wtf! Godin sounds like a familiar name, but i wasn’t sure why someone had stencil’d it all over the city.

then i wandered behind the Mont-Royal metro station and saw this stencil’d onto the brick wall, facing the park.

so i guess Gerald Godin wrote the poem Tango de Montreal in 1983

okay so here’s my translation of this poem, let’s see how i do..

7:30 in the morning the Montreal metro
is full of immigrants
this world wakes up so early.

the old heart of the city
therefore still beats
thanks to them.

this old worn heart of the city
with its spasms
its embolisms
its heart murmurs
and all its faults

and all the reasons in the world that it would
stop itself
quit.

I think my translation isn’t too shabby, actually. If anyone out there speaks better french than me, lemme know if I’ve made any mistakes!

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