For the Exoplanet Lot exhibition organised by MAGP, open in France now until 4 September, I collaborated with artist Tania Candiani on an ‘exoplanet song’. Tania installed this fabulous listening sculpture on the cliff top at Saint Cirq Lapopie above the Lot river. I adapted the lyrics of a medieval song written by the Comtesse de Dia and the song was recorded in Occitan and played in the valley. The Comtesse’s song was a love lament of a woman betrayed. My song is the voice of Earth lamenting that humans have left for an exoplanet. Here are my lyrics in English:

Of things I’d rather keep in silence I must sing

so bitter do I feel toward you

whom I love more than anything.

 

You left me for another planet,

my forests silent, my seas emptied.

Come home now. I have healed the scars you graved.

 

It’s not right another celestial body takes you away from me.

Remember how it was with us in the beginning!

Come home. We could still have much time together

Before the death throes of the sun begin.

 

I send you there, on your exoplanet,

this song as messenger and delegate.

Come home my lovers, my humans.