Here There Was Once a Country

by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Marilyn Hacker (Translator)

Lebanese writer Vénus Khoury-Ghata, who lives in France and has won many of France's major literary prizes, blends French surrealism with Arabic poetry's communal narrative mode in three stunning poetic sequences. Here brilliantly translated from the French by poet Marilyn Hacker, the English-speaking reader has rare insight into another world, another dimension.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

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

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

They photographed the month of April naked
soiled the almond tree's underwear
pressed the poppy's black heart between two stones

We associated with them only at solstices
when the days shortened their skirts up to dusk
and fireflies copulated in lamps

We lost sight of them after the scandal that tarnished the night
suspected of milking the moon to sell its cream to rich galaxies.

[Edita · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unable to say where he broke off his relations with roads from now
on his folded feet pace up and down a nonexistent space.

[Mills College Library]

841.914 K458h 2001