I’ll make a short note on this collection of Khaïr-Eddine, translated by Jake Syersak. I initially found the translation disappointing, which may have been due to the line-break (though the last poem is mostly prose and it is ambiguous for me), as I found looking at the French – I cannot read French at all – much more exciting until I heard it out loud, when I get a taste of seriousness to Syersak. My favourite line with its translation (ending the first stanza of the last, longest, poem):
su sang qui tue end moi les très vieux suicidaire.
with the blood that slays that age-old suicidal inside of me.
p97
I feel that both poets are shaking here, and I do not feel the translator’s verve is an imposition.