from ‘La mort de Abderrahman’ from ‘The Death of Abderrahman’

from ‘La mort de Abderrahman’

Le soleil et la lune se meuvent d'après un calcul - Coran LV, 5
 
Après la pesée
Désarroi
Où         l’étoile l’arbre
 
Tôt          la visite
Présage
 
Ce jour-là
Ton cœur est léger
Réjouissances
Fête dans la maison
Ceux qui attendent au coin
Tueurs à gages
 
*
 
Bienfaits
sommes-nous à nier
une miséricorde
Deux jardins pleins de fleurs
deux autres ombragés
L’attente est longue
les sources ont tari
complainte
au réveil
quatre assassins
qui te saisissent
 

from ‘The Death of Abderrahman’

The sun and the moon move by precise calculation - Quran 55:5
 
After the reckoning 
Confusion
Where         the star the tree
 
Early         the visit
Foretelling 
 
That day 
Your heart is light
Happiness 
Celebrating at home
Those waiting round the corner
Hired killers
 
*
 
Blessings 
shall we deny
mercy
Two gardens in bloom
two more in shade
The wait is long
the springs are dry
crying out 
when you wake
four assassins 
seize you
 

from 'The Death of Abderrahman'

The sun and the moon move by precise calculation - Quran 55:5
 
After the weighing/reckoning/judgement
Disarray/confusion/consternation/distress
Where       (the) star (the) tree
 
Early (on)       the visit
Omen/foretells/presages/Foretelling
 
That day
Your heart is light
Rejoicing
(A) celebration/party at the house
Those waiting/who wait at the corner
Contract killers/hitmen/hired killers
 
*
 
Good deeds
are we to deny
(a) mercy
Two gardens full of flowers
two others in shade/shaded
The wait/waiting is long
(the) springs/sources have dried up
lament
on waking/at dawn
four assassins
(who) seize you
 

These are the first two sections from a nine-section poem. The poem is written in memory of the poet’s friend and former colleague, Abderrahman Benlazhar. Benlazhar was murdered by Islamic fundamentalists for being a prominent intellectual at the University of Constantine in 1992. These murders were common and often described as ‘visits’, as one of the Algerian participants informed the group.

Delaina, our guest translator, explained to the group that throughout the poem Tengour employed a poetics of fragmentation, where the sense is established through fragments and the narrative follows through imagistic jolts. These effects are achieved, in the French, whilst maintaining a beautiful and sonorous lyricism. We tried to translate these (often vowel sound patternings in the French) into constontal patterns in the English (e.g. the repeated ‘h’ sounds in the final stanza of the first section).

Edward Doegar, Commissioning Editor

Original Poem by

Habib Tengour

Translated by

Delaina Haslam with The Poetry Translation Workshop Language

French

Country

Algeria