The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry

ABDELLATIF LAÂBI

expected
and the clocks knit narrower nights.

A yellow wind dyed the forests’ façades
the trees stopped weeping
and the swings full of little girls and robins stopped moving
with a great rustling of wings and petticoats

November had banished tears
compassionate angels licked the small scraped knees
—marilyn hacker

Abdellatif Laâbi 1942–

fez, morocco

A

playwright and translator of Arabic literature, Laâbi also became a

left-wing militant. With Mohammed Khaïr-Eddine and Mostefa Nis-

saboury he founded the review Sou∆es. The journal was banned in

1972, and Laâbi was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was finally freed in 1980

and settled in France in 1985. Principal works: Le Soleil se meurt, 1992; L’Étreinte

du monde, 1993; Le Spleen de Casablanca, 1996; Fragments d’une genèse oubliée,

1998; Poèmes périssables, 2000.

The Portrait of the Father

The portrait of the father
has taken its place on the wall
behind me
I am alone
in my closed room
My wife has gone to work
Yet
a hand comes to caress my neck