Helene Cardona's Blog - Posts Tagged "maternal-love"
Celebrate Mother's Day with The Abduction
Celebrate Mother's Day with The Abduction, the story of a mother who reunites with her son after 13 years.
The Abduction
Winner of an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
"Hélène Cardona's deft translations capture both the stark immediacy and haunting music of these moving poems, almost letting us believe they were written in English."
—Martha Collins, author of Casualty Reports
"Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, as translated by Hélène Cardona, opens with the simple delights of a mother engaging with her young child, speaking to him as if he is a confidant. "He is occupied / making his ten fingers move / to convince me that love is the natural fruit / of the tree of life," she writes, and what could be more wonderful than that? Bliss, however, is followed by unbearable grief, when her child is abducted and separated from her for years by her then husband.
The poems become the vessel for her dialogue with her missing child, and with her sorrow. Even when mother and child experience a complex reunion years later, each has learned to fear loving the other, and her son must face a second infancy, this time as an immigrant, much less blissful than the first. As a reader of poetry, I am compelled by the raw spareness of these poems, their keen honesty, and their refusal to provide us with a restoration arc. As a parent, I feel empathy, and awe at Al-Masri's survival."
—Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
The Abduction
Winner of an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
"Hélène Cardona's deft translations capture both the stark immediacy and haunting music of these moving poems, almost letting us believe they were written in English."
—Martha Collins, author of Casualty Reports
"Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, as translated by Hélène Cardona, opens with the simple delights of a mother engaging with her young child, speaking to him as if he is a confidant. "He is occupied / making his ten fingers move / to convince me that love is the natural fruit / of the tree of life," she writes, and what could be more wonderful than that? Bliss, however, is followed by unbearable grief, when her child is abducted and separated from her for years by her then husband.The poems become the vessel for her dialogue with her missing child, and with her sorrow. Even when mother and child experience a complex reunion years later, each has learned to fear loving the other, and her son must face a second infancy, this time as an immigrant, much less blissful than the first. As a reader of poetry, I am compelled by the raw spareness of these poems, their keen honesty, and their refusal to provide us with a restoration arc. As a parent, I feel empathy, and awe at Al-Masri's survival."
—Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Readers Favorite's 5 Star Review for The Abduction!
So happy! The Abduction received a Readers Favorite's 5 Starred Review:
https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...
If anyone would like a signed copy, please DM me! 😘
Huge thanks to Luwi Nyakansaila and Readers Favorite 🥰
https://readersfavorite.com/book-revi...If anyone would like a signed copy, please DM me! 😘
Huge thanks to Luwi Nyakansaila and Readers Favorite 🥰
