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Overview
Award-winning American poet Marilyn Hacker offers the brilliance of Lebanese poet Vénus Khoury-Ghata in an exquisite translation
She says
the earth is so vast one can’t help but be lost like water from a broken jug
There is no fortress against the wind
the winter wanderer must count on the compassion of walls
—from “She Says”
Translated by celebrated American poet Marilyn Hacker, Vénus Khoury-Ghata’s She Says explores the mythic and confessional attractions and repulsions of the French and Arabic imaginations with poems that open like “a suitcase filled with alphabets.” Sex, barrenness, grief, and death—the backdrop of a war-ravaged country—are always at the edges, made increasingly urgent by lines often jagged and spare, their music unhaltered. Khoury-Ghata is a vital voice in both her native and adopted languages and we are pleased to present this important collection in English.
Synopsis
Award-winning American poet Marilyn Hacker offers the brilliance of Lebanese poet Vénus Khoury-Ghata in an exquisite translation
She says
the earth is so vast one can’t help but be lost like water from a broken jug
There is no fortress against the wind
the winter wanderer must count on the compassion of walls
—from “She Says”
Translated by celebrated American poet Marilyn Hacker, Vénus Khoury-Ghata’s She Says explores the mythic and confessional attractions and repulsions of the French and Arabic imaginations with poems that open like “a suitcase filled with alphabets.” Sex, barrenness, grief, and death—the backdrop of a war-ravaged country—are always at the edges, made increasingly urgent by lines often jagged and spare, their music unhaltered. Khoury-Ghata is a vital voice in both her native and adopted languages and we are pleased to present this important collection in English.
Publishers Weekly
"Living in Lebanon, I wouldn't have written books; I would have had children cooked" writes Parisian ex-pat Venus Khoury-Ghata as a partial answer to why she writes in French. She Says, translated and introduced by Marilyn Hacker, comprises two poem sequences, "She Says/ Elle Dit" and "Words/ Les Mots," presented with French en face, while "Their voices alone pass through all obstacles." Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.