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In her English-language debut, acclaimed French-language poet of the Palestinian diaspora Olivia Elias probes deeply into the upheavals of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
Poet of the Palestinian diaspora, born in Haifa in 1944, Olivia Elias writes in French. She lived until she was 16 years old in Lebanon where her family took refuge in 1948, then in Montréal-Canada, before moving to France.
Her third and most recent collection, Chaos, Traversée, appeared in 2019. Characterized by terse, laconic language and strong rhythms, her poetry shows a deep sensitivity to the Palestinian cause, the plight of refugees and human suffering in general.
Her work, translated into English, Arabic, Spanish, Italian and Japanese, has been published in numerous journals and in anthologies.
Kareem James Abu-Zeid is a translator of writers from across the Arab world, including Najwan Darwish (Palestine), Adonis (Syria), Rabee Jaber (Lebanon), and Dunya Mikhail (Iraq). He has received an NEA translation grant, PEN Center USA’s Translation Award, a Fulbright Fellowship (Germany), and a CASA Fellowship (Egypt), among other honors. He is also the author of The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice.
Chaos, Crossing —translated by award-winning translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid—is a powerful chronicle of uprootedness, of times marked by inequality, injustice, and disconnection. These poems—presented here in a bilingual edition—seek the calm at the center of the storm, the still point amidst the chaos.
Chaos, Crossing
Olivia Elias (Author)
Kareem James Abu-Zeid (Translator)
Foreword by Najwan Darwish
Pub Date: 11/15/2022
Publisher: World Poetry Books
Product Number:9781954218079
ISBN978-1-954218-07-9
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 192
Price: $ 20.00
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Deutschland.
Ein Wintermärchen
Im traurigen Monat November war’s,
Die Tage wurden trüber,
Der Wind riß von den Bäumen das Laub,
Da reist ich nach Deutschland hinüber.
Und als ich an die Grenze kam,
Da fühlt ich ein stärkeres Klopfen
In meiner Brust, ich glaube sogar
Die Augen begunnen zu tropfen.
Und als ich die deutsche Sprache vernahm,
Da ward mir seltsam zumute;
Ich meinte nicht anders, als ob das Herz
Recht angenehm verblute.
Ein kleines Harfenmädchen sang.
Sie sang mit wahrem Gefühle
Und falscher Stimme, doch ward ich sehr
Gerühret von ihrem Spiele.
Sie sang von Liebe und Liebesgram,
Aufopfrung und Wiederfinden
Dort oben, in jener besseren Welt,
Wo alle Leiden schwinden.
Sie sang vom irdischen Jammertal,
Von Freuden, die bald zerronnen,
Vom Jenseits, wo die Seele schwelgt
Verklärt in ew’gen Wonnen.
Sie sang das alte Entsagungslied,
Das Eiapopeia vom Himmel,
Womit man einlullt, wenn es greint,
Das Volk, den großen Lümmel.
Ich kenne die Weise, ich kenne den Text,
Ich kenn auch die Herren Verfasser;
Ich weiß, sie tranken heimlich Wein
Und predigten öffentlich Wasser.
Ein neues Lied, ein besseres Lied,
O Freunde, will ich euch dichten!
Wir wollen hier auf Erden schon
Das Himmelreich errichten.
Wir wollen auf Erden glücklich sein,
Und wollen nicht mehr darben;
Verschlemmen soll nicht der faule Bauch,
Was fleißige Hände erwarben.
Es wächst hienieden Brot genug
Für alle Menschenkinder,
Auch Rosen und Myrten, Schönheit und Lust,
Und Zuckererbsen nicht minder.
Ja, Zuckererbsen für jedermann,
Sobald die Schoten platzen!
Den Himmel überlassen wir
Den Engeln und den Spatzen.
Und wachsen uns Flügel nach dem Tod,
So wollen wir euch besuchen
Dort oben, und wir, wir essen mit euch
Die seligsten Torten und Kuchen.
Ein neues Lied, ein besseres Lied!
Es klingt wie Flöten und Geigen!
Das Miserere ist vorbei,
Die Sterbeglocken schweigen.
Die Jungfer Europa ist verlobt
Mit dem schönen Geniusse
Der Freiheit, sie liegen einander im Arm,
Sie schwelgen im ersten Kusse.
Und fehlt der Pfaffensegen dabei,
Die Ehe wird gültig nicht minder –
Es lebe Bräutigam und Braut,
Und ihre zukünftigen Kinder!
Ein Hochzeitkarmen ist mein Lied,
Das bessere, das neue!
In meiner Seele gehen auf
Die Sterne der höchsten Weihe –
Begeisterte Sterne, sie lodern wild,
Zerfließen in Flammenbächen –
Ich fühle mich wunderbar erstarkt,
Ich könnte Eichen zerbrechen!
Seit ich auf deutsche Erde trat,
Durchströmen mich Zaubersäfte –
Der Riese hat wieder die Mutter berührt,
Und es wuchsen ihm neu die Kräfte.
Heinrich Heine
(1797-1856)
Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen
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Baignée
Un fruit de chair se baigne en quelque jeune vasque,
(Azur dans les jardins tremblants) mais hors de l’eau,
Isolant la torsade aux puissances de casque,
Luit le chef d’or que tranche à la nuque un tombeau.
Éclose la beauté par la rose et l’épingle !
Du miroir même issue où trempent ses bijoux,
Bizarres feux brisés dont le bouquet dur cingle
L’oreille abandonnée aux mots nus des flots doux.
Un bras vague inondé dans le néant limpide
Pour une ombre de fleur à cueillir vainement
S’effile, ondule, dort par le délice vide,
Si l’autre, courbé pur sous le beau firmament,
Parmi la chevelure immense qu’il humecte,
Capture dans l’or simple un vol ivre d’insecte.
Paul Valéry
(1871-1945)
Baignée
Poème
Album de vers anciens
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The Mask
‘Put off that mask of burning gold
With emerald eyes.’
‘O no, my dear, you make so bold
To find if hearts be wild and wise,
And yet not cold.’
‘I would but find what’s there to find,
Love or deceit.’
‘It was the mask engaged your mind,
And after set your heart to beat,
Not what’s behind.’
‘But lest you are my enemy,
I must enquire.’
‘O no, my dear, let all that be;
What matter, so there is but fire
In you, in me?’
William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)
The Mask
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O! there are spirits of the air
O! there are spirits of the air
And genii of the evening breeze,
And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair
As star-beams among twilight trees:—
Such lovely ministers to meet
Oft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet.
With mountain winds, and babbling springs,
And moonlight seas, that are the voice
Of these inexplicable things
Thou didst hold commune, and rejoice
When they did answer thee; but they
Cast, like a worthless boon, thy love away.
And thou hast sought in starry eyes
Beams that were never meant for thine
Another’s wealth:—tame sacrifice
To a fond faith I still dost thou pine!
Still dost thou hope that greeting hands,
Voice, looks, or lips, may answer thy demands!
Ah! wherefore didst thou build thine hope
On the false earth’s inconstancy!
Did thine own, mind afford no scope
Of love, or moving thoughts to thee!
That natural scenes or human smiles
Could steal the power to wind thee in their wiles.
Yes, all the faithless smiles are fled
Whose falsehood left thee broken-hearted;
The glory of the moon is dead;
Night’s ghosts and dreams have now departed;
Thine own soul still is true to thee,
But changed to a foul fiend through misery.
This fiend, whose ghastly presence ever
Beside thee like thy shadow hangs,
Dream not to chase;—the mad endeavour
Would scourge thee to severer pangs.
Be as thou art. Thy settled fate,
Dark as it is, all change would aggravate.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792 – 1822)
O! there are spirits of the air
1886
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A deeply moving and brilliantly idiosyncratic visual book of days by the National Book Awardwinning author of Just Kids and M Train, featuring more than 365 images and reflections that chart Smiths singular aestheticinspired by her wildly popular Instagram.
In 2018, without any plan or agenda for what might happen next, Patti Smith posted her first Instagram photo: her hand with the simple message Hello Everybody! Known for shooting with her beloved Land Camera 250, Smith started posting images from her phone including portraits of her kids, her radiator, her boots, and her Abyssinian cat, Cairo.
Followers felt an immediate affinity with these miniature windows into Smiths world, photographs of her daily coffee, the books shes reading, the graves of beloved heroes William Blake, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Simone Weil, Albert Camus. Over time, a coherent story of a life devoted to art took shape, and more than a million followers responded to Smiths unique aesthetic in images that chart her passions, devotions, obsessions, and whims.
Original to this book are vintage photographs: anniversary pearls, a mothers keychain, and a husbands Mosrite guitar. Here, too, are photos from Smiths archives of life on and off the road, train stations, obscure cafés, a notebook always nearby. In wide-ranging yet intimate daily notations, Smith shares dispatches from her travels around the world.
With over 365 photographs taking you through a single year, A Book of Days is a new way to experience the expansive mind of the visionary poet, writer, and performer. Hopeful, elegiac, playfuland complete with an introduction by Smith that explores her documentary processA Book of Days is a timeless offering for deeply uncertain times, an inspirational map of an artists life.
Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She gained recognition in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred debut albums of all time by Rolling Stone.
Smith had her first exhibit of drawings at the Gotham Book Mart in 1973 and has been represented by the Robert Miller Gallery since 1978. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Wītt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence.
A Book of Days Hardcover
by Patti Smith
Language: English
Publication date: 11/15/2022
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
ISBN-10: 0593448545
ISBN-13: 978-0593448540
Pages: 400
Hardcover
$22.99
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Der Rabe Ralf
Der Rabe Ralf
will will hu hu
dem niemand half
still still du du
half sich allein
am Rabenstein
will will still still
hu hu
Die Nebelfrau
will will hu hu
nimmt’s nicht genau
still still du du
sie sagt nimm nimm
‘s ist nicht so schlimm
will will still still
hu hu
Doch als ein Jahr
will will hu hu
vergangen war
still still du du
da lag im Rot
der Rabe tot ,
will will still still
du du
Christian Morgenstern
(1871-1914)
Der Rabe Ralf
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Ongekend ontroerend, dat is De dieren in mij, de eerste dichtbundel van Delphine Lecompte. Ze kreeg er de C. Buddingh’-prijs voor.
Hier toonde iemand zich even strijdbaar als kwetsbaar met gedichten die een diepe indruk achterlaten. Zo anders van toon dan haar gevierde, exuberante recente werk. De dieren in mij is een bundel die een plaats afdwingt in de kast en het hart van iedere poëzieliefhebber. Het is Lecompte zonder opsmuk. Ook dan is haar werk beeldschoon.
Delphine Lecompte (1978) debuteerde in 2004 in het Engels met de roman Kittens in the Boiler, daarna schakelde ze over naar gedichten in haar moedertaal. Voor haar debuutbundel De dieren in mij (2009) ontving ze de C. Buddingh’-prijs en de Prijs voor Letterkunde van de Provincie West-Vlaanderen. In 2015 verscheen Dichter, bokser, koningsdochter, dat genomineerd werd voor de VSB Poëzieprijs. Voor The Best of Delphine Lecompte (2018) selecteerde ze zelf de greatest hits uit haar rijke oeuvre, dat met Vrolijke verwoesting (2019) negen dichtbundels omvat. In 2020 maakte Lecompte haar debuut als prozaïste met Beschermvrouwe van de verschoppelingen. In oktober 2021 verscheen Beschermvrouwe van de verschoppelingen II, waarin de waanzin andermaal welig tiert en dat naar eigen zeggen dubbel zo goed is. In 2022 verscheen het derde deel.
De dieren in mij
Door Delphine Lecompte
ISBN: 9789403180410
NUR: 306
Type: Paperback
Uitgever: De Bezige Bij
Verschijningsdatum: 15-09-2022
Prijs: 21,99 euro
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Interweaving elegy, indictment, and hope into a love letter to California, Look at This Blue examines America’s genocidal past and present to warn of a future threatened by mass extinction and climate peril.
Truths about what we have lost and have yet to lose permeate this book-length poem by American Book Award winner and Fulbright scholar Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. An assemblage of historical record and lyric fragments, these poems form a taxonomy of threatened lives–human, plant, and animal–in a century marked by climate emergency.
Look at This Blue insists upon a reckoning with and redress of America’s continuing violence toward Earth and its peoples, as Hedge Coke’s cataloguing of loss crescendos into resistance.
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke, a Fulbright scholar, First Jade Nurtured SiHui Female International Poetry Award recipient, recent Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals, and U.S. Library of Congress Witter Bynner fellow, has written seven books of poetry, one book of nonfiction, and a play. Following former fieldworker retraining in Santa Paula and Ventura in the mid-1980s, she began teaching, and she is now a distinguished professor of creative writing at the University of California, Riverside.
Hedge Coke is the editor of ten anthologies and has served as an editor and guest editor for several magazines and journals, most recently World Literature Today. The social media hashtag #poempromptsforthepandemic hosts hundreds of original prompts she crafted as public outreach during the COVID-19 pandemic. A career community advocate and organizer, she most recently directed UCR’s Writers Week, the Along the Chaparral/Pūowaina project, and the Sandhill Crane Migration Retreat and Festival.
Look at This Blue
Author: Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Language: English
Publisher: Coffee House Press
Pages: 168
Publish Date: March 29, 2022
Type: Paperback
EAN/UPC 9781566896207
Price: $16.95
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« C’est à l’âge de quinze ans que le chant s’est éveillé en moi. Je m’ouvrais à la poésie et entrais, comme par effraction, dans la voie de la création… »
Depuis son premier essai sur l’eau et la soif – unique témoin de son adolescence chinoise qu’il a emporté en France et dont il nous livre aujourd’hui la traduction – en passant par ses rencontres avec Gide, Vercors, Lacan, Michaux, Emmanuel, Bonnefoy et tant d’autres, François Cheng nous fait partager la longue route qui l’a conduit à devenir, lui l’exilé qui ne savait dire ni « bonjour » ni « merci » lorsqu’il est arrivé à Paris, un poète français.
Cette route, malgré les affres de la guerre en Chine, l’extrême précarité matérielle des premières décennies en France, et de cruels tourments intérieurs, mais est toujours éclairée par la poésie française qu’il intériorise au fond de sa nuit solitaire. Elle l’est aussi par un amour passionné pour la langue d’un pays dont François Cheng a fini par épouser le « chant » et le destin. La lumière singulière qui émane de ce récit est celle d’une symbiose qui unit la Voie du Tao et la voie orphique et christique, orientant sans cesse le poète vers l’authentique universel.
François Cheng, de l’Académie française, est à la fois poète (Entre source et nuage, 1990 ; Le Livre du vide médian, 2004), romancier (Le Dit de Tianyi Prix Femina 1998, L’Éternité n’est pas de trop, 2002) et essayiste (Cinq méditations sur la beauté, 2006, L’un vers l’autre, 2008, Cinq méditations sur la mort autrement dit sur la vie, 2013, Assise, 2014). Il a publié De l’âme en 2016.
Une longue route pour m’unir au chant français
par François Cheng
Albin Michel
12 Octobre 2022
Littérature générale
Éditeur: Albin Michel (12 octobre 2022)
Langue: Français
252 pages
ISBN-10 : 2226477306
ISBN-13 : 978-2226477309
Broché €17,90
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He tells of the Perfect Beauty
O cloud-pale eyelids, dream-dimmed eyes,
The poets labouring all their days
To build a perfect beauty in rhyme
Are overthrown by a woman’s gaze
And by the unlabouring brood of the skies:
And therefore my heart will bow, when dew
Is dropping sleep, until God burn time,
Before the unlabouring stars and you.
William Butler Yeats
(1865-1939)
He tells of the Perfect Beauty
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Why Misread a Cloud takes its name from clouds of ash and smoke in wartime which appear to the author as a “storm, blown over the sea.”
Both an exploration of the mind’s ability to turn what is into something else, in order to survive, and the mind’s ability to resist the effects of psychosocial warfare imposed by the military and the police.
“Who wants you to be afraid” the poet’s friend asks as he “added sugar to his tea.” The realization this question brings enables the poet to explore forces that separate us from one another and ways we rise up within ourselves to move through fear toward love.
Emily Suzanne Carlson (she/they) is a mother, a poet, a teacher, and the director of Art in the Garden, a liberatory, anti-racist, LGBTQ+ welcoming, and joy-centered program that addresses the impacts of childhood adversity and trauma. Emily is the author of two prior collections: I Have a Teacher (Center for Book Arts 2016), and Symphony No. 2 (Argos Books, 2015). Emily earned a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. With friends, they run the Bonfire Reading Series. Emily lives with their partner and their three children in an intentional community centered around an urban garden in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Why Misread a Cloud
Emily Suzanne Carlson
Pub. Date: 10/31/2022
Publisher: Tupelo Press
ISBN: 978-1-946482-79-2
Binding: Paberback
Pages: 42
Price: $ 17.95
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