Birds of Prey

by Joyce Mansour, Marilyn Rose (Introduction), Albert Herzing (Translator)

Poems

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1960

About the author

Joyce Mansour was born Joyce Patricia Adès in Bowden, England to Jewish-Egyptian parents. After a month in Cheshire her parents returned with her to Cairo where she lived until she was twenty. Moving to Paris in 1953 she became one of the best known Surrealist poets, authoring sixteen books of poetry, as well as a number of important prose and theater pieces.

Reviews

[Adriana Scarpin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A introdução desse livro escrita por Marilyn Gaddis Rose tem uma expressão de que gostei muito e que resume perfeitamente a poética de Mansour: cinema verbalizado.
A poesia surrealista se mantém sobretudo pela estranheza das imagens geradas e com Mansour isso também é realidade, por isso taxar sua obra de cinema verbalizado cai tão bem, em sua sucessão de imagens estranhas cabe a nós "montarmos" e extrairmos o sentido que nos impressiona.

[l · Rating 2 out of 5]

no offence but why are french people like this....

[Fai Ahmed]

“Your steps which go
Without a print
Towards light and its
Obsessive voices
Which are my hell.”

[Mathilde · Rating 4 out of 5]

"nous vivions englués au plafond
suffoqués par les vapeurs rances exhalées de la vie quotidienne
nous vivions rivés aux plus basses profondeurs de la nuit
nos peaux séchées par la fumée des passions
nous tournions autour du pôle lucide de l'insomnie
jumelés par l'angoisse séparés par l'extase
vivant notre mort dans le goulot de la tombe"

[Sameen Shakya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Birds of Prey by Joyce Mansour is a collection of surrealist poems by, perhaps, the best known female surrealist poet of that era.

Surrealism, by its very nature, is hard to talk about because it can be, and often is, all style no substance. While I wouldn't go so far as to say Mansour's book fits that category, I do believe the poems here carry some bits of that tendency.

What saves the poems, and this book as a whole, from that fate is a bubbling feminist edge that carries this collection outside of surrealism and into the real world. I appreciated that very much.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this at the library. Years later I went back to find it. Although it was listed in the catalog they couldn't locate it. It was missing. Eventually they removed it from the catalog altogether. Many many years have now passed, and after picking up a few dollars here and there, I searched and hunted down a used copy of this slim book, which is far superior to any other translations of Mansour's poems. Highly recommended.

[EIJANDOLUM · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Bénis-moi folle lumière qui éclaires les monts célestes
J'aspire à redevenir vide comme l'oeil paisible
De l'insomnie
J'aspire à redevenir astre.”

♥

“Your heart, majestic with piety,
sobbing solitary.”