Memory of a father

Abstract

Memory of a father Samira Negrouche (bio) Translated from the French (Algeria) by Marilyn Hacker For Djamal AmraniPassive as a bird who seesall, in his flight, and keeps in his heartwhile he flies through the sky the consciousnessthat does not forgivepier paolo pasolini: Poesia en forma di rosa A memory of a fatherlives in my deep solitudesRimbaud's solitudesand his rotting legamputatedat conception * legs and basementsrottento finish off poets likethe soul of Jean Sénacwho don't stophaunting me * must make do with thatbe born with thatand sperm spilled [End Page 9] into wombsas fast as possibledischarged into the bodyand the shadows * a knee places itselfgently on the fold of lifethen all of the head and the bodytake shapein the imperfect curveof that leopard manat the start of the raceand they take off to caressthe horizon * it's a wanderingsoulin search of memorysolitary, forgetfulintending to washin torrents of rainand blood * memory of your backimpotent, arthriticand the lead weightsnever entirelydetached from it * [End Page 10] you still bow downin front of heavyblack shoes you bow down before your own legs in short pants fleeing the furious violent schoolmaster * still you bow downbefore your mother's mountains, the Djurdjuraand your tears of mourningthe ones hidden behindclosed, dirty windowpanesfarewells one does not want toutterthat one never knows how topronouncethat you go ontearingfrom the genealogyof my words [End Page 11] Samira Negrouche Samira Negrouche was born in 1980 in Algiers where she still lives. She is a poet and translator and also a doctor, who has privileged her literary projects for several years. She has frequently collaborated with visual artists and musicians, including the violinist Marianne Pikety, the theorbist Bruno Helstroffer, and the graphic artist Ali Silem. Her books include A l'ombre de Grenade, Le Jazz des oliviers, and Six arbres de fortune autour de ma baignoire. Poems of hers, in Marilyn Hacker's translation, have appeared in journals including Banipal, Pleiades, upstreet and PN Review. Marilyn Hacker Marilyn Hacker is the author of thirteen books of poems, including A Stranger's Mirror (Norton) and Names (Norton), and an essay collection, Unauthorized Voices (Michigan). Her translations from the French include Marie Etienne's King of a Hundred Horsemen (Farrar Strauss and Giroux), which received the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation and Emmanuel Moses's Preludes and Fugues (Oberlin). For her own work, she received the PEN Voelcker Award for poetry. She lives in Paris. Copyright © 2018 University of Nebraska Press