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    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    This Is Not A Feminist Poem – Wana Udobang (a.k.a. Wana Wana)

    from AFROWOMEN POETRY – Three Poets from Tanzania: Langa Sarakikya, Gladness Mayenga, Miriam Lucas

    The Bitter Bulbs of Trees Growing by the Roadsides of History – Three Poems by Iya Kiva

    The Bitter Bulbs of Trees Growing by the Roadsides of History – Three Poems by Iya Kiva

    What Was Heart Is Now A Scorched Branch – Three Poems by Elina Sventsytska

    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    Water: The Longest Tunnel Where the Color Blue Is Born — Four Poems by SHANKAR LAHIRI

    Message to Forough Farrokhzad and other poems – Samira Albouzedi

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    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    BOW / BHUK – Parimal Bhattacharya

    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    A Very Different Story (Part II)- Nandini Sahu

    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    The Aunt: An Exhilarating Story by Francesca Gargallo

    THE PROGENITOR – Zakir Talukder (trans. from Bengali by Masrufa Ayesha Nusrat)

    Stalks of Lotus – Indrani Datta

    Love in Africa and the Variety of its Declinations:  Short-story Tasting from Disco Matanga by Alex Nderitu

    Love in Africa and the Variety of its Declinations: Short-story Tasting from Disco Matanga by Alex Nderitu

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    FLORAL PRINT FLAT SHOES – Lucia Cupertino

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    Menstruation in Fiction: The Authorial Gaze – Farah Ahamed

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    Plowing the publishing world  – Tribute to Brazilian writer Itamar Vieira, by Loretta Emiri

    Plowing the publishing world – Tribute to Brazilian writer Itamar Vieira, by Loretta Emiri

    Jaider Esbell – Specialist in Provocations, by Loretta Emiri

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    The mushroom at the end of the world. Camilla Boemio interviews Silia Ka Tung

    The mushroom at the end of the world. Camilla Boemio interviews Silia Ka Tung

    The Excruciating Beauty of Ukrainian Bravery: Camilla Boemio Interviews Zarina Zabrisky on Her Photography Series

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    Reportage of War and Emotions, the Tour of Three Ukrainian Poets in Italy

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    Videos from worldwide readings in support of Ukrainian writers, September 7, 2022 – Zoom Readings Italy

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    Reportage of War and Emotions, the Tour of Three Ukrainian Poets in Italy

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    The Shipwreck Saga – Lynne Knight

    Phoenix: Part I – YIN Xiaoyuan

    Surrender to Our Explosive Democracy – Five Poems by Serena Piccoli from “gulp/gasp” (Moria Poetry 2022)

    Take Note of the Sun Shining Within Twilight – Four Poems by Natalia Beltchenko

    Me and French, or What I Did During the Pandemic (Moi et le français, ou Ce que j’ai fais pendant la pandémie) – Carolyn Miller

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    HAIR IN THE WIND – Calling on poets to join international project in solidarity with the women of Iran

    THE DREAMING MACHINE ISSUE N. 11 WILL BE OUT ON DEC. 10

    THE DREAMING MACHINE ISSUE N. 11 WILL BE OUT ON DEC. 10

    RUCKSACK – GLOBAL POETRY PATCHWORK PROJECT

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    IL BIANCO E IL NERO – LE PAROLE PER DIRLO, Conference Milan Sept. 7

    IL BIANCO E IL NERO – LE PAROLE PER DIRLO, Conference Milan Sept. 7

    OPEN POEM TO THE CURATORS OF THE 58th VENICE BIENNALE  FROM THE GHOSTS OF THAT RELIC YOU SHOULD NOT DARE CALL “OUR BOAT” (Pina Piccolo)

    OPEN POEM TO THE CURATORS OF THE 58th VENICE BIENNALE FROM THE GHOSTS OF THAT RELIC YOU SHOULD NOT DARE CALL “OUR BOAT” (Pina Piccolo)

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On the thread of hope- Sana Darghmouni reviews Abdellatif Laâbi’s latest poetry collection

April 22, 2021
in Interviews and reviews, The dreaming machine n 8
On the thread of hope- Sana Darghmouni reviews Abdellatif Laâbi’s latest poetry collection
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I declare that there is no other Human Being

Except the One who fights Hatred relentlessly

In him and around him

The one who just as he opens his eyes in the morning

Raises the question:

What I will do today to preserve

my quality and my pride

as a Human?

(I declare)

 

L’espoir à l’arranché (“On the thread of hope”) 2018, is Francophone Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi’s  latest poetry collection to be recently translated into Italian, with the title Sul filo della speranza by Carolina Paolicchi and published by Astarte edizioni in 2021. Divided into five harmonious sections, in this collection, the author’s maturity as a poet is revealed by verse that is highly textured, constantly renewed and open to human, universal questions. All sections of the collection show his active participation in contemporary society and the gaze of the militant intellectual who embraces a keen interest for current affairs. The gaze is that of an observer, but rather than a passive one, it is that of a poet who trembles in the face of injustice and in a calm tone, almost a whisper, refuses to give up exposing evil and denouncing it. The gaze is directed towards contemporaneity and towards the era in which we live. The Syrian tragedy, for example, is present in many poems, such as “Aleppo”:

 

 

 

not a word about Aleppo

you can not

you are but a spectator

helpless

embarrassed to death

trapped in this sordid brothel

that language has become

Witnessing

Denouncing

Will we keep filling our mouths?

I tell you

not a word about Aleppo

You can not

 

or again, “Aylan of Syria”:

 

I didn’t write anything

when it was necessary

on Aylan

I confess that even today

This omission

Haunts me

As if I were Cain

 

The collection does not lack for  challenges to fanaticism and manipulated religious ideologies. Just as there is no lack of condemnation against intellectual oppression and freedom of thought.

In the lines cited above (“I declare”) we perceive immediately the poet’s need to define himself within the scope of  the human and to proudly proclaim his belonging to the human race. Abdellatif Laabi declares and certifies that he identifies with humans and their tragedies, and this is a deeply felt theme in all his socially committed work.

This universal dimension is harmoniously intertwined with a second level that allows for the emergence of the individual experience of the poet, whose ego is very present throughout the work. In fact, some of the poems evoke the poet’s own history and his  experience of imprisonment. Laabi was arrested in 1972 with the charge of subversion and plotting against the regime and in 1973 he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was then released after 8 and a half years thanks to an international campaign on his behalf. This painful experience did not make him lose his concern for humanity and his continuous raising of existential questions. For him prison becomes a lesson in transparency and awareness of one’s abilities and limitations. The jailkeeper will never be able to humiliate him or extinguish his capacity for revolt and freedom, as he writes in the poem “I remember”, speaking of his torturer:

and despite the madness of pain

into which he had sunk me

I kept reading

in his wide open eyes

the same astonishment

 

that said

never

at no time

did he humiliate me

 

the role of poetry is also central to the collection. Poetry acts as witness, it becomes the spokesperson for the phenomena that surround us. Poetry lends words to things that have no voice, evokes the details of everyday life and petty affairs. Poetry is totality, is the only thing that counts, as the poet declares in the following lines of “I belong to her”:

And now

Only poetry matters

…

I belong to her

And to her

return

 

Thus making On the thread of hope a hymn to poetry as well.

 

Cover image: Photo of Gaza beach at sunset taken by Ahmed Masoud in April 2021.

 

 

Tags: Abdellatif LaâbiCarolina PaolicchiFrenchItalian translationMiddle eastmigrantsMoroccopoets in prisonSana Darghmounisocially engaged poetrySyria

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