The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

MOHAMMED DIB

Islander and bearded toiler
For an unconquerable faith unconquered
Not a great poem on its knees
Before the slab of sorrow
But a little Haitian lamp
That wipes away its tears while smiling
And with one beat of its wings
Rises for ever and ever a man
As far as the ends of the sky upright
And free in the green innocence
Of all men!

Christian West my terrible brother
Here is my sign of the cross
In the name of revolt
And of justice
And of tenderness

Amen!
—joan dayan

Mohammed Dib 1920–

tlemcen, algeria

O

ne of the most highly regarded of the Maghrebian poets, Dib ex-

plores, in his enigmatic, sensuous work, meanings seemingly beyond

words and, in the subterfuge of his elliptical remarks, engages in

what has come to be known as postcolonial counterdiscourse. Dib, Mouloud

Mammeri, Mouloud Feraoun, and Kateb Yacine formed a literary group alter-

nately referred to as the ‘‘Generation of ’52,’’ to mark the year Mammeri’s and

Dib’s first novels appeared, and the ‘‘Generation of ’54,’’ to mark the start of the

war for independence in Algeria. In 1959 Dib moved to France, where he con-