We love poems that trust language to do the heavy lifting, and this French poem is one of those pieces. On the surface, it looks simple. Read slowly, and you begin to notice something very clever happening. The poem opens with a complete thought about wanting someone, perhaps after a betrayal.
Then the lines become shorter and shorter. What begins as a full statement becomes fragments, then a single self. The meaning intensifies as the language diminishes, and the poem embodies a feeling that takes over completely, until there is nothing left.
How this poem works
This is a poem built on linguistic reduction. It uses repetition and ellipsis to narrow the voice step by step, so the experience is carried by the language itself. The ending lands through a precise sound device. In French, faim and fin are homophones, pronounced the same, linking hunger and ending in a single closure.
You might read it as longing
You might read this poem as longing. Someone else might feel it as dependence. Another reader might recognise love, or love that has turned toxic.
Of course, we wrote with a particular meaning, but you, the reader, always have room to interpret our work in the way that feels most natural to you.
HUNGER
I should have known
That I’d be hungry
After all you did to me.
I should have known it.
I should have known.
I should have.
I should.
I
.
End
Good poetry deserves to travel
We have shared an English translation because not everyone who follows us reads French, and because we believe good poetry deserves to travel. Translated poetry is never perfect, but it allows the emotional architecture of a poem to be felt beyond its original language.
Foreign language poems
Most of our work is written in English, but our growing collection of poems includes four poems in French, including La Faim, and, to date, one poem in Italian. That Italian poem, La Tempesta, was lovingly reviewed by our dear friend Barbara, known to many as Baby. Her generosity, insight, and encouragement meant more to us than she ever knew. She passed away in 2025. We miss her. May she rest in peace.
Sharing this poem feels true to what Creative Bubbles is about. Language, feeling, craft, and the intelligence of words chosen with care.
The original poem
LA FAIM
J’aurais dû savoir
Que j’aurais eu faim
Après tout ce que tu m’as fait.
J’aurais dû le savoir.
J’aurais dû savoir.
J’aurais dû.
J’aurais.
Je
.
La fin
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