Maram Al-Masri was born in Latakia, Syria, and moved to France following the completion of English Literature studies at Damascus University. She is the recipient of many prestigious literary prizes, including the Prix d’Automne de Poésie de la Société des Gens De Lettres, the Adonis Prize, the Premio Citta di Calopezzati, Il Fiore d’Argento, and the Dante Alighieri Prize.
Maram is considered one of the most acknowledged, influential, and captivating voices of her generation.
Her collections include Je te regarde, Cerise rouge sur un carrelage blanc, Par la fontaine de ma bouche, Elle va nue la liberté, Je te menace d’une colombe blanche, Le Rapt, and two anthologies, Femmes poètes du monde arabe and La poésie des femmes kurdes.
Hélène Cardona’s books include Life in Suspension and Dreaming My Animal Selves (both Salmon Poetry) and the translations The Abduction (Maram Al-Masri, White Pine Press), Birnam Wood (José Manuel Cardona, Salmon Poetry), Beyond Elsewhere (Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac, White Pine Press), Ce que nous portons (Dorianne Laux, Éditions du Cygne), and Walt Whitman’s Civil War Writings for WhitmanWeb.
The recipient of over 20 honors & awards, including the Independent Press Award, Hemingway and Albertine and FACE Foundation Grants, she holds an MA in American Literature from the Sorbonne, worked as a translator for the Canadian Embassy, and taught at Hamilton College and Loyola Marymount University.
Acting credits include Chocolat, The Hundred-Foot Journey, John Wick: Chapter 4, and Serendipity, among many.
Come on, sun
wake up!
Let your yellow hair float
over the cold shoulders of the earth,
over the houses and the streets.
Heat up stones and asphalt –
dance, sun, ablaze!
Make this this day a beautiful day,
because far from this cold wall
in a field of colors
where the sky is made of tales
and where the trees are poems
I will take my little one for a walk.
From The Abduction (White Pine Press, 2023) by Maram Al-Masri
© Translated by Hélène Cardona
For other contributions by Hélène Cardona, please follow the links below:
- Ibiza … (José Manuel Cardona, translation Hélène Cardona)
- Dreamer (Hélène Cardona)
- Ouranoupolis Pantoum (Hélène Cardona)
Published with the permission of Maram Al-Masri & Hélène Cardona