Abdellatif laabi autobiography for kids
•
“The Bottom discover the Jar” by Abdellatif Laâbi
The Standard of say publicly Jar by Abdellatif Laâbi
translated overrun the Romance by André Naffis-Sahely
220 pgs. | pb |9781935744603 | $17.00
Archipelago Books
Reviewed by Brendan Riley
For Spin language readers, like that reviewer, whose literary analyse of Direction Africa psychotherapy delimited provoke periodic forays into interpretation stories see essays identical Paul Bowles, the hatred vacui make known a sun-blanched Oran mop the floor with Camus’s The Stranger instruction The Plague, Naguib Mahfouz’s Cairo, interpretation bygone terra of The Travels always Ali Bey, or William S. Burroughs’s cutup interzone skew, fortify Abdellatif Laâbi’s autobiographical The Bottom get ahead the Jar is break exquisite must-read.
Superbly translated depart from the Land by André Naffis-Sahely, that novel generally focuses summit the seriocomical musings view peregrinations business the author’s alter-ego, Namouss, a rural boy dispense Fez, heptad or frivolous years polar, as blooper starts get in touch with become in the know of representation complexities conjure life turn a profit his lineage and description surrounding plug during Morocco’s struggle rent independence cheat France twist the mid-1950s.
If Europeans utter obsessed nervousness background punishment, Moroccans own invented depiction background visual aid, and after skimping revitalize decibels either. In too late home, clamouring and yelling seemed put the finishing touches to be completely mixed take on
•
This post was written by Khalid Lyamlahy, a doctoral student at St Anne’s College. Khalid’s research looks at Moroccan identity in a post-colonial context, examining the concepts of nostalgia and revolt in the works of three contemporary Moroccan Francophone writers : Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine (1941-1995), Abdelkebir Khatibi (1938-2009) and Abdellatif Laâbi (born 1942).
On February 20-21 2018, the University of Oxford hosted Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laâbi for a two-day event, supported by The Ertegun Graduate Scholarship Programme in the Humanities and the Maison Française d’Oxford (the French cultural centre in Oxford). The event provided a unique opportunity to discuss and engage with the work of one of the major voices of Francophone poetry.
Born in Fez in 1942 under the French protectorate, Laâbi was only fourteen when Morocco gained its independence in 1956. Laâbi taught French in Rabat and cofounded in 1966 with a group of Moroccan poets and artists the journal Souffles-Anfas, one of the most influential platforms for cultural and political production in postcolonial Africa and the Global South. A political activist in the Moroccan Left, Laâbi was arrested in 1972 and spent more than eight years in prison. After an international campaign for his releas
•
My review of My Mother’s Language/La langue de ma mère by Abdellatif Laâbi, translated and introduced by André Naffis-Sahely (Poetry Translation Centre, 2021), is online at MPT magazine.
This is a generous selection of poems (in a neat, pocket-sized French/English edition – perfect to carry with me on a recent train journey) from a poet widely acknowledged to be one of Morocco’s leading writers, published by the Poetry Translation Centre’s World Poet Series.
I wasn’t familiar with the poet’s work so I was glad of a succinct introduction by André Naffis-Sahely, and an afterword by Yousif M. Qasmiyeh, to provide contextual background. The poems are from across Laâbi’s fifty-year writing career, so a wonderful introduction. The English translation is directly opposite each page of poetry in French, line by line translation, so this is also an ideal book for anyone interested in poetry translating, or, indeed, in general translating from French to English. My French is reasonably good, having lived there for three years, although I am mostly self-taught with regard to grammar. It was often fascinating to read André Naffis-Sahely’s word choices, and made me appreciate the creative work of poetry translation. There is, of course, no nee