Mostafa Nissabouri (Morocco)
1943
In 1964 Nissabouri and Mohammed Khair-eddine published a major manifesto arguing for the rethinking and modernization of Moroccan poetry. He was one of the founders of the review Souffles, and also edited Integral. He is also a member of the House of Poetry in Morocco.
His collections of poetry include La mille et deuxième nuit, Approche du désertique (Casablanca and Neuilly: Editions Al Manar, 1999). translated into English in 2001, and the chapbook Aube.
BOOKS OF POETRY
ENGLISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATIONS
Approach to the Desert Space (trans. by Guy Bennett) (Los Angeles: Seeing Eyes Books, 2001); For and Ineffable Metrics of the Desert (trans. by Guy Bennett, Pierre Joris, Addie Leak, and Teresa Villa-Ignacio) (Los Angeles: Otis Books, 2018).
from Approach to the Desert Space
2
The voyage during which topographies
deserted by their southare reinvented
is first
an unfinished stretch of land
the presence adjoining
hypothetical regions
of runaway identity
now
on the verge of spilling out
into a new rectified interrogation
I alone am responsible
for the blank exegesis and the ashbeginning with an observed sky withdrawing
into the depths of pseudonymity
the shore established
from here to the mnemonicwhen the moon
glows with dull light
of oracular bones
that in moonlight
statues up to their knees in water
parody periods of angel shortages
and beneath the precariousness of clouds
the entire constraint of the landscapesuch as it fell
at the first flight
of suspended morning
English language translation ©2001 by Guy Bennett.