Publisher's Synopsis
In this brief collection by one of Morocco's most beloved and respected poets, Aicha Bassry, translated and selected by Mbark Sryfi and Eric Sellin, English-speaking readers will find accessible, deceptively simple portraits and snapshots that upon closer reading reveal a depth of emotion and vision that is both psychologically and politically compelling.
Aicha Bassry takes us on a journey of the heart, mapped in deceptively simple language grounded in elemental imagery and sensuous metaphors. The words on the page are also incantation and exorcism, 'votive offerings on cold nights, ' the last rampart against fear and alienation.--Hélène Stafford
This is a seductively lyrical poetry opening from an atlal, a ruin, of loss, yet always aware of its means, & able to turn these back on the reader, because, as Aicha Bassry knows, seduction is the 'jutting rock [that]/ Gashed the whiteness/ Of the leg that lusted after/ Its own image in the water.'--Pierre Joris
Poetry. African & African American Studies. Women's Studies. Middle Eastern Studies.
