Streets of Algiers and other poems

by Anna Gréki

Anna Gréki (1931-66) was a French Algerian poet, a Feminist and Communist involved in the Algerian struggle for independence. Born Colette Anna Grégoire, she grew up in a small town in the Aurès mountains, whose landscape and culture formed the living core of her poetry. A student at the Sorbonne, she left Paris to join the underground Parti Communiste Algérien and the struggle against the French occupation. She was arrested and imprisoned in the infamous Barberousse prison in Algiers, during which time she wrote her first collection, which was smuggled out by a friend and published in Tunisia in 1963. Transferred to a prison camp and deported, she returned to Algeria after independence to complete her studies and found work as a teacher. She died inc childbirth at the age of 34.

The Streets of Algiers is the first full English translation of her second collection, Temps f orts , published posthumously in 1966, remarkable for its unforgiving clarity, delicate sensuality and formal accomplishment, and its ability to speak words of courage from the depths of great suffering.

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

Published October 1, 2020

About the author

Anna Greki, est une poétesse algérienne d'expression française née à Menaa le 14 mars 1931, morte à Alger le 6 janvier 1966

De son vrai nom Anna Colette Grégoire, Anna Gréki passe son enfance à Menaâ, dans les Aurès, où son père est instituteur. Elle effectue ses études primaires à Collo, secondaires à Skikda (alors Philippeville), mais interrompt ses études supérieures de lettres à Paris pour participer activement au combat pour l'indépendance de l'Algérie. Institutrice à Annaba (Bône) puis à Alger, militante du Parti communiste algérien, elle est arrêtée en 1957, internée à la prison Barberousse d'Alger, transférée en novembre 1958 au camp de Beni Messous puis expulsée d'Algérie. Elle rejoint alors son mari Jean Malki à Tunis, où est publié son premier recueil, avant de rentrer en Algérie à l'indépendance en 1962. Achevant sa licence en 1965 elle est professeur de français au lycée Abdelkader d'Alger. Elle laisse à sa mort brutale un second recueil et un roman inachevé.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greki’s poems are passionate, sensual, violent, tender, revolutionary, and angry. These poems contain raw emotions, and I found them deeply moving.

Her love for her country and her anti-colonialism are evident, and yet, these poems are clearly written by an individual who has experienced the horrors of war. There are odes to those who have been tortured for the cause and references to a friend who was burnt alive.

Poetry doesn’t always translate well, and, not speaking French, I can’t speak to the accuracy of the translation, but I can speak to the beauty of the translation. The poems are stunning works of art.