Poetry
Nos ancêtres les Bédouins
Not translated into English
Salah Garmadi · 1975
Synopsis
Poems in French in which a Tunisian linguist questions his identity and his language, divided between dialectal Arabic, classical Arabic and French. The poem that gives the volume its title celebrates a Bedouin heritage that no slogan erases and a shared Maghrebi belonging, from the desert to Djerba. In “Conseils aux miens après ma mort”, the poet refuses the verses of the Quran over his body, the couscous of the third day and the acres of paradise, and mocks the rites of the cemetery.
Context
The collection appeared in Paris in 1975 from P. J. Oswald, in the series J'exige la parole, with a preface by Lorand Gaspar and illustrations by Nja Mahdaoui and Mahmoud Séhili. Garmadi had published in 1970, in Tunis, a collection in Arabic mixed with Tunisian dialect; this one is in French. Poems from it have been translated into English by Peter Constantine and by Pierre Joris, and the book has been reissued in digital form.
Who it is for
Ironic and serious poetry on language, religion and identity, running to about a hundred pages.
Prizes and reception
His poems have been included in anthologies of Maghrebi poetry translated into English, notably Diwan Ifrikiya.
Sources for this page 5
The pages consulted to check this page.