Joyce Mansour 1928–1986
bowden, england
M
ansour was one of the few prominent female poets associated with
the Surrealist movement. Her caustic, subversive, and humorous
verse explored taboo subjects, mainly sexual. Mansour, of Egyp-tian heritage, spent her childhood in Cairo and was nicknamed ‘‘l’enfant du
conte orientale’’ by André Breton. She began publishing in Actes Sud in 1950, and
her work continues to influence new generations of feminists as well as Lebanese
and Francophone writers. Principal works: Crisis, 1954; Déchirures, 1955; Rapaces,
1960; Carré blanc, 1965; Ça, 1970; Faire signe au machiniste, 1977.
I Want to Sleep with You
I want to sleep with you side by side
Our hair intertwined
Our sexes joined
With your mouth for a pillow.
I want to sleep with you back to back
With no breath to part us
No words to distract us
No eyes to lie to us
With no clothes on.
To sleep with you breast to breast
Tense and sweating
Shining with a thousand quivers
Consumed by ecstatic mad inertia
Stretched out on your shadow
Hammered by your tongue
To die in a rabbit’s rotting teeth
Happy.
—mary ann caws
Tinfoil
I want to live in the shade of your face
More hostile than wood
More vigilant than Noah