From 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, Inc.
Book Description
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.
From the Back Cover
"Venus Khoury-Ghata's poems are striking for their combined innocence and wisdom. In Marilyn Hacker's pristine translations, the poems are dreamlike and real, mysterious and utterly true. Here Khoury-Ghata envisions the beginnings of the world and modern tragedy simultaneously and with a heightened clarity. Language shines in a new light as she searches for its origin: 'How to find the name of the fisherman who hooked the first word / of the woman who warmed it in her armpit / or of the one who mistook it for a pebble and threw it at a stray dog.' And she takes us to a time when 'Everything that frequented water had a soul / clay jug, gourd, basin 'buckets fished out the ones stagnating in the wells' indifference.' I am enchanted." (Grace Schulman) "Venus Khoury-Ghata plants a new language with the seeds of an ancient one. The poetry of She Says cannot be contained by the old worlds of words yet there she is in a household of wind and rain or within the realm of trees. Who better to translate this mythic sweep of poetry than Marilyn Hacker whose own poetry is a breaking through." (Joy Harjo)
About the Author
Vénus Khoury-Ghata is a Lebanese poet and novelist who has been a resident
of France since 1973. She is the author of a dozen collections of poems and as many
novels. Her work has been translated into Italian, Russian, Dutch, German, and Arabic.
She Says FROM THE PUBLISHER
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.
FROM THE CRITICS
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.
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