Roots and Tattoo, Youssef Rzouga [best books to read fiction txt] 📗

I.Aword

If you ask me

If you ask me where I am
Well I live here beyond the mountains
It is far but I am near
I live in another world
But you live in it too
It is everywhere, as rare as helium
Why do you ask for an aircraft to travel in
Ask instead for a filter for nitrogen
a filter for carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases
Ask for a filter for all that separates us
a filter for life
You say that you can hardly breathe
What of it ! Who do you think can breathe ?
Most of the time we take it equably
A wise man has said :
« It was so dark that I could barely see the stars. »
He only meant that it was night.
Gunnar Ekelof

(Swedish poet, 1907-1968)
tr.Muriel Rukeyser & Leif Sjoberg


II.Poems

I’m the world

Who am I ?
Which relation has the world to my name ?
As I’m the world
And the world in my body continent
Is only a village ..
Among thousands of villages..
Cheering my name..

My village : The world :
A sufficient reason for the world’s hand to be extended
- From where I know-
In order to write !…
Let the world be my face and mask !…
Let me establish an empire ..bigger than me
And the word’s dimension
I’ll name it :
My home land…

…

The poem should go in the no way direction
The traveller is like to miss-always-a voyage to the fire extreme..to be
The distance is like an apple, switness of which is monopolized by the philosophy worm
The traveller is like to be separated from the perfection reaching..by a question
The whitness he didn’t step on is like to be.. the knowledge..
The poem should go in the impossible direction.


Aquarium

…

Finally,
I found you,
I love so much,
That I’v imprisoned you
In the heart’s room
Untill I lose you.

…
We meet in the crowd so we don’t meet
We have met finally,
So will we meet ?
…

In these moments, the chance is as follows :
The distance between us is a sea
And you’re not min, Oh ! My killer.

During moments I go into the language
And I say to the female :
Write :
The distance is mercury
I and you are fires.

I love the rain
And I love you :
Handsome as a love’s state
And a great child as an old wise..

I love the rain
And I love you :
Armed with the silk of ambiguity
And flleeing from the humankind’s nonsens

…

I see you in the distance
Why don’t you approach
So that we open a new era ?
Near I see you
Why don’t you hide ?
So that I see you ?

Keep me away,
What’s happening now is out of my hand..
Keep me near
So that I feel truth is in my hand.
…

You’re my half and weakness’ point,
So why .. when I meet you behind me you rebel,
Precede before me and try to dynamite me ?

You’re my loss, compass and asylum.
I love you.
But I don’t love you.
Don’t ask me why ?
Because I love you.

Take my place and see what I see
Have you seen ?
You haven’t seen what I see
That’s why I see what you don’t.

My silence calls you
And I remain in my fort
Sculpturing rocks and words
And declaring to death that you’re my voice.


The place’s genius

The antique vaccum

To discover the roots
I passed the shade’s threshold towards the antique vaccum

When the mirrors encountered me
Moisture invaded my heart and fear attacked me
Untill I got fully blind
I no longer know any door
To go out from the archipelago of death..and from me.

The mew of silence in the room

The sun passes daily by the same place
Embraces the old fence and bow tio the woman/ghost

Under the tree downs
The silence mews in the room,
Some footsteps penetrated by a mysterious fall
And a future without gladness.

…And the trace remains

I had a lover moon that does’t sleep
And a stony table
Then a wind moved suddenly, sands scraped
And buried (what appeared from me and her)
Once we stopped the tribes
Travelling called us
So it was extinction
But the trace remains..

Ambiguious directions

No crow here..no flowing springs
Only silence cawing in the death’s desert..
And directions are ambiguious.

I’ve the stork’s blood moving away from the sea
The rose would whisper the most strangling-aroma
I’ve the dawn’s hand
The rose would rise the perfume..
To make me suffer..

Language of the antique caves

All this dusty mud means time in geography
These rocks thrown on the oversight’s bench mean the wound
Once it grows slowly in the memory’s wall
These things mean a beating heart was here ..

Tattoo on the body of rocks
This is language of the antique caves once mixed with darkness
This calmness no longer means what speech only meant
Are these shades ..or shades ?


A love card

Between us cities and villages,
A wound’s distance and a night
But, flows and flows drifting me to the extreme of the unknown
So I saddle my questions
And I head for you on the lightening and word horseback
Organize banquets, oh ! Memory !
Let the spring overflow the heart geography..
Till the mirrors burn.


Contents

I- Word ……………………………………………………….. 5
II- Poems………………………………………………………. 6
1- I’m the world ……………………………………………… 7
2- Untittled poem …………………………………………….. 8
3- Aquarium ………………………………………………….. 9
4- Untittled poems …………………………………………….. 11
5- The place’s genius …………………………………………. 21
6- The antique vaccum ……………………………………….. 23
7- The new of silence in the room …………………………….. 25
8- And the trace remains ………………………………………. 27
9- Ambiguis directions ……………………………………… 28
10- Language of the antique caves ……………………………. 29
11- A love card ……………………………………………… 30
III- Chronology of important dates ……………………………. 31


III. Chronology of important dates :

Rzouga, Youssef, March 21 st, 1957 in Mahdia/Tunisia
- First literary experiences : 1967.
- First text published : « Something called need », a short story in the magazine « Radio et Télévision » (1973).

- Studies
- Primary :
- School of Zorda (Sidi Alouan/ Mahdia)

- Secondary :
- Secondary school of Ksour Essef and school of Sousse

- University

- Master’s Degree in Journalism and information sciences (Political sciences).
- Russian language Diploma from the Faculty Patrice Lumumba, Moscow
- Postgraduate Diploma in Political sciences from the Faculté des droits et des sciences politiques of Tunis.
- Postgraduate Diploma in theories of art and aesthetics from the Institut supérieur de Beaux-arts of Tunis.
- Postgraduate Diploma in journalism and information sciences.

- Professional experience
- Editor of the daily paper « El-Amal » (1980-1982)
- Chief editor of the magazine « Ach’er » (La poésie) published by the ministry of Culture (1982-1987)
- Editor of the daily paper « El-Amal » then in « Elhoria » (1987-1989)
- Chief editor of the magazine « Aljil Aljadid » (1990-1992)
- Chief editor of the literary supplement « Warakat Thakafiya » of the Tunisian daily paper « Essahafa », since 1989.

- Other activities and honour
- 1981 : Award of the ministry of Culture for his poetic book « I’m distinguished from you by my grievances »
- 1986 : Award of the ministry of Culture for his poetic book « The program of the rose ».
- 1999 : Award of the ministry of Culture for his poetic book « The Wolf in the Word ».
- 2000 : National merit award in the cultural field
- 2002 : Youssef Rzouga Award of Poetry (A yearly Poetic Prize started in 2002, awarded to the best young poet within the framework of « The Meeting of Greater on literary creation »).
- 2003 : Aboulkacem Chebbi Prize for his poetic book : « Flowers of Dioxyde of History »
- 2003 : The Pen of the Poet Youssef Rzouga (A yearly Poetic Prize started in july 2003 in Sidi Alouan).
- 2004 : Prize of the gouvernorat of Mahdia for his poetic book : « Emergency Case Declaration ».
- 2004 : King Abdallah II’s creativity Prize / Jordan.
- He was invited to many international literary festivals and conferences : Jordan, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Russia, Yougoslavia, Italy, France…
- President of the club « Mercredi littéraire » in Tunis since 1988.
- Member of the Union of Tunisian Writers
- Member of the Union of Arab Writers
- Member of the Tunisian Association of Journalists

Poetic Works

- I’m distinguished from you by my grievances (1979)
- The program of the Rose (1985)
- The Astrolabe of Youssef the traveler (1986)
- The Wolf in the Word (1998)
- The Country Between the Hands (2001)
- Flowers of Dioxyde of History (2001)
- Emergency Case Declaration (2002)
- The Butterfly and the Dynamite (2004)
- Yogana (The Book of Poetic Yoga) (2004)
- Poetical Works (Volume I)… (2003)

About his books

- The Garden and its surroundings (Aspects of the career of the poet Youssef Rzouga, 224 pages) By : Khaled Mejri and Chawki Anizi
- Globalization and poetic Language in « Flowers of Dioxyde of History » by Maher Derbel and Abderrazek Kolsi.
- The Troubadour of Modern Times, edited by Walid Soliman.
- The Half-open Door, by Hafedh Mahfoudh.
- Down with the mask, by Chamseddine Ouni.
- The orchestra of the poet in « Emergency Case Declaration » by Houyem Ferchichi.

Khawla Kreesh

- Born on 25th august 1983 in Tunis.
- She is carrying on her studies of « Applied Languages » in the High Institute of Human Sciences (Tunis).
- Interested in literary translation and prose in the following languages : Arabic, English, Spanish.
- Many of her translations were published in cultural –attachés.
- She was accorded the Fredj Lahwar Translation Prize in 2003 during the Tunis Forum of Creative Writing.
- Many of her poems were published in the tunisian press.
- Member of the « Wednesday literary club » in Tunis-Medina.
- Two translated books of the same poet will be published :
• Two hells in the heart
• Pacem in Terris