The Water People

£9

Poetry Book Society Translation Choice for Autumn 2022

The Water People, the latest in the Poetry Translation Centre’s World Poet Series, presents an extended extract from the renowned Lebanese poet Vénus Khoury-Ghata’s 2018 collection Gens de l’eau, brought vividly to life in English by Khoury-Ghata’s long-time translator, award-winning poet Marilyn Hacker.

Khoury-Ghata is an outstanding figure in contemporary literature, with a prolific output in both poetry and prose. In her poetry, Arabic and French literary traditions merge like water from the river and the waterfall. Her mesmeric sequences plunge us into a semi-surreal world where humans and trees, plants, animals and the elements themselves are intertwined and yet forever fluid. She is celebrated for her immersive landscapes and folkloric narratives, drawn from her upbringing in Lebanon but expressed in the language of France, where she has lived since 1972.

“River-fresh and supple in Marilyn Hacker’s English translation, Khoury-Ghata’s voice has the authority and cadence of the practised story-teller. The re-telling of traditional stories and fables is an enduringly popular genre in contemporary poetry. Vénus Khoury-Ghata has gone farther, inventing a new ‘ancient’ mythology which has a particular relevance to the present moment.” – Carol Rumens