Arabic Translations
Poetic Justice: Anthology of
Moroccan Contemporary Poetry
Poetic Justice is a volume of Moroccan Contemporary poetry. With a nod to the romantic nationalism of the 1930s and 40s, the work is comprised of poets who began writing after Moroccan independence in 1956.
Deborah Kapchan began working on these translations in 1994 when she lived in Rabat. The movement to instantiate Moroccan Arabic as a literary language was just beginning in those years. I attended a festival of zajal – Moroccan poetry in dialect – where both Ahmed Lemsyeh and Driss Mesnaoui were reading. Impressed with their oeuvre, she began translating their work into English. I attended meetings of the Moroccan Writer’s Union. she met other poets, most writing in classical Arabic. She had a decisive meeting with poet and literary scholar Mohammed Bennis. She travelled to Tangier to hear Wafa Lamrani read, and sought her out in Casablanca. She was interviewed on television, as a scholar interested in contemporary poetry. The project was on. She quickly turned her attention to classical Arabic, and then to French.
Why "Poetic Justice"?
Moroccan poetry (and especially zajal) is published in newspapers and is thus a vibrant form of social commentary. Poetic Justice because there is a law, a justice, in the aesthetic act that speaks back to the law of the land. Poetic Justice because literature has the power to shape the cultural and moral imagination in profound ways (Nussbaum 1995).
Largely thanks to the internet, Moroccan poets speak to international audiences in journals such as Banipal and Arabic Literature (in English). Well-known poets like Marilyn Hacker have brought Rachida Madani to the English-speaking world. Pierre Joris and Habib Tengour have brought a millennium of North African poets together in one volume. International poetry festivals like the PEN Writers festival in New York City have welcomed Moroccan poets and writers, as have organizations such as Citylore. The journal Souffles is now thriving.
Poetic Justice is a contribution to these ongoing endeavors. It is by no means a history of Moroccan poetry. Indeed, the youngest generation of poets are not represented here. Reading the oeuvre from independence until the new millenium however, it is clear that what Driss Mesnaoui calls the “letters of time” have fallen into the hands of Moroccan poets, as they translate and write what they and their readers are.
Click on the poem title to see the Arabic translation.
“Untitled” by Fatma Benkirane 2104
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