Helene Cardona's Blog - Posts Tagged "missing-child"

I'd delighted to share that The Abduction, my translation of Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, won an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Using artfully spare language and repetition, Maram Al-Masri takes us deep into the emotional
complexities of losing her young child to a patriarchal society. 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 and Because What Else Could I Do, winner of the
Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

With a tender eloquence that equals the French original, Hélène Cardona brings into English a
harrowing tale, The Abduction by Maram Al-Masri, of a new mother devastated by the abduction of her son, kidnapped by his father to be raised in Syria. Now, as the distraught mother powerfully notes, “war rages within me.” Cardona vividly conveys both palpable love and the wisdom learned from tragic loss: “To love, it is to prepare yourself / to be abandoned.” As The Abduction proves, Hélène Cardona is a translator who has the exquisite sensitivity and erudition
that this brave, vulnerable work deserves.
—Cynthia Hogue, winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy
of American Poets, author of In June the Labyrinth
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

The Abduction won an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Each small stanza of The Abduction picks at the torn seam between parent and child. As the narrator peers “out a window/ I haven’t cleaned for a long time,” we also see what has been snatched away. Arabic poet Al-Masri writes of the changed shape of her future, a devastation eloquently translated by Hélène Cardona.
—Lauren Camp, 2022 to 2025 New Mexico Poet Laureate and author of Took House
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

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 and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

I'd thrilled to share that The Abduction, my translation of Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, won an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
Using artfully spare language and repetition, Maram Al-Masri takes us deep into the emotional
complexities of losing her young child to a patriarchal society. 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 and Because What Else Could I Do, winner of the
Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award

With a tender eloquence that equals the French original, Hélène Cardona brings into English a
harrowing tale, her son, kidnapped by his father to be raised in Syria. Now, as the distraught mother powerfully notes, “war rages within me.” Cardona vividly conveys both palpable love and the wisdom learned from tragic loss: “To love, it is to prepare yourself / to be abandoned.” As The Abduction proves, Hélène Cardona is a translator who has the exquisite sensitivity and erudition
that this brave, vulnerable work deserves.
—Cynthia Hogue, winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy
of American Poets, author of In June the Labyrinth

I'd thrilled to share that The Abduction, my translation of Maram Al-Masri's Le Rapt, won an Albertine and FACE Foundation Grant from Villa Albertine.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Using artfully spare language and repetition, Maram Al-Masri takes us deep into the emotional
complexities of losing her young child to a patriarchal society. 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 and Because What Else Could I Do, winner of the
Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award

With a tender eloquence that equals the French original, Hélène Cardona brings into English a
harrowing tale, her son, kidnapped by his father to be raised in Syria. Now, as the distraught mother powerfully notes, “war rages within me.” Cardona vividly conveys both palpable love and the wisdom learned from tragic loss: “To love, it is to prepare yourself / to be abandoned.” As The Abduction proves, Hélène Cardona is a translator who has the exquisite sensitivity and erudition
that this brave, vulnerable work deserves.
—Cynthia Hogue, winner of the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the Academy
of American Poets, author of In June the Labyrinth
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Check out the book trailer for The Abduction, my translation of Maram Al Masri's Le Rapt!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jAnY...
"where the sky is made of tales
and where the trees are poems
I will take my little one for a walk."

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...



Thank you Gloria Mindock for the beautiful book trailer😘

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

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 🥰

This week Cobalt Poets presents Hélène Cardona plus open reading:
Hélène Cardona’s Life in Suspension is called “a vivid self-portrait as scholar, seer and muse” by John Ashbery, and David Mason described Dreaming My Animal Selves as “liminal, mystical and other-worldly,” adding, “this is a poet who writes in a rare light.” Hailed as visionary by Richard Wilbur, Cardona’s luminous poetry explores consciousness, the power of place, and ancestral roots. It is poetry of alchemy and healing, a gateway to the unconscious and the dream world. She has authored 5 translations, is the recipient of over 20 awards & honors, and her work has been translated into 19 languages. Dreaming My Animal Selves / Le Songe de mes Âmes AnimalesLife in Suspension: La Vie Suspendue Tuesday, Aug 15, 7:30 PST.
Signups for the open reading start at 7:15pm in the Zoom Chat.
https://www.facebook.com/events/27835...
When you RSVP, please use your full real name as your Zoom identity so you can be let in, and DM me so I can let Rick Lupert know.

"Hélène Cardona’s masterful translation of The Abduction by French-Syrian poet Maram Al-Masri contains luminescent pages where readers will traverse tidal currents of raw emotion, passionate love, and the sting of separation. Unfurled through motifs of motherhood, nascent innocence, the ache of parting, and the fragility of memory, the verses offer a rare glimpse into the psyche of a mother torn from her offspring. This collection of poems is a sacred remembrance, reminding the reader of our deep connections between a parent and child and within the family. And the deep sorrows we face when those connections are sundered unexpectedly."
--Julian Press Book Reviews:
http://www.saintjulianpress.com/the-a...

I'll be reading from The Abduction, my new translation of Maram Al Masri:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://helenecardona.com/translations
https://www.whitepine.org/the-abduction

Celebrate the 50th anniversary of White Pine Press at Beyond Baroque! Established in 1973, White Pine Press has been at the forefront in bringing the rich diversity of world literature to the English speaking audience. Publishing poetry, fiction, essays, and literature in translation from around the world. Join Editor/Publisher Dennis Maloney alongside White Pine-published authors: Hélène Cardona, Tzveta Sofronieva, Yun Wang, and Christopher Merrill for an evening of poetry readings including new and selected works. The evening will be hosted by poet and translator Gail Wronsky.

Beyond Baroque
681 Venice Blvd
Venice Beach
Los Angeles, CA 90291