Alphabets of Sand

by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Marilyn Hacker (Translator)

Translated by notable American poet Marilyn Hacker, Lebanese-French poet and novelist Venus Khoury-Ghata explores the formal and mythic attractions, congruencies and incompatibilities of the French and Arabic imaginations and poetic traditions in poems that open like a suitcase filled with alphabets. Sex, barrenness, exile, grief, and death - the backdrop of a war-ravaged country - are always at the edges, made increasingly urgent in lines varying from sinuous length to jagged and spare, their music unfettered, their metaphors lively, multilayered and unpredictable. But humour, the demotic voice, the storyteller's enchantments and an anecdotal sense of quotidian life are also omnipresent. Khoury-Ghata's is a vital voice in French and Francophone literature.

88 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2009

About the author

Vénus Khoury-Ghata was a renowned Lebanese-born poet and novelist who lived in Paris from 1972, writing in French while heavily influenced by Arabic culture. Crowned Miss Beirut in 1959, she became a prolific author known for works exploring themes of exile, memory, and death.

She won numerous prestigious literary honors, including the Prix Apollinaire and the Grand Prix de la Société des gens de lettres. Her work has been translated into Arabic, Dutch, German, Italian and Russian, and she was named a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2000.

Reviews

[Joseph Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the collection of poetry, words, languages and nature take on new unexpected forms. Khoury Ghatta’s imagery is brilliant. I will have to write about it or maybe share some of the most vivid lines soon.
A longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2021/12/31/wo...