Changing Shores

By Nadine Ltaif

One woman's emotional and cultural journey is luxuriously illustrated in this moving collection, as she artfully recounts leaving Lebanon for a new life in Canada. In a voice that blends prose with poetry, she copes with the newfound sense of rootlessness she gains in exchange for her new freedom. Though she is finally allowed to pursue the thirst for love and desire for acceptance that her former lifestyle forbade, she unexpectedly finds sadness in what she has to give up. She richly conveys her rebirth through references to Arabic mythology and ultimately comes to terms with her exile through celebration. {Guernica Editions}

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guernica
• Release date: Jan 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781550714784

Nadine Ltaif

Nadine Ltaif is a poet and translator, living in Montreal. Her first book, Les Métamorphoses d'Ishtar, was published by Guernica in 1987. Three books of her poetry, Le livre des dunes, Le rire de l'eau and Ce que vous ne lirez pas have been published in Montreal by Le Noroît. Her book Entre les fleuves was translated by Christine Tipper and published by Guernica under the title Changing Shores. An English version of Les Métamorphoses d'Ishtar, translated by John Asfour, is scheduled for publication by Guernica. She has translated John Asfour’s book Nisan into French.

Book preview

NADINE LTAIF

CHANGING SHORES

 ESSENTIAL POETS SERIES 157

TRANSLATED BY CHRISTINE TIPPER

GUERNICA

Toronto – Buffalo – Lancaster (U.K.)

2008  

Contents

In Hecate’s Shadow 

À la belle dame sans merci 

The Bee 

The Day of the Miracle 

EXILE 

STRONG SAP 

Simurghiade 

Castaway Island 

The Language of Sirens 

IN HECATE’S SHADOW

I

À la belle dame sans merci

The story I tell

came from no one.

And yet I’m just repeating the eternal story.

Hecate’s changeable face is that of one who loves.

In the depths of my own darkness,

she stands at the crossroads of mythical figures.

Holding a thousand burning torches,

she has chosen to replace my heart

to monstrously enlighten me.

It is in this light that I decide to portray love.

      I tell of how I was completely in love 

with her, suddenly, I’m being born again in 

her arms, arms that I’d placed around me, and 

I’d sought to blossom from within her, I 

sought to know her, to read her, to drown 

her in letters, I decided she would be born of 

me also.

     I sought an island, Castaway Island, also 

called the island of Mr. Reason and Mr. 

Folly, where they confront each other, and I

believed that she, sage, would hold out her 

hand to me to resolve this enigma.

   Why do I suddenly feel so unsettled on 

this earth? Why do my legs tremble? Why am 

I still so scared of living in exile? She wants to 

plant both my feet in the earth, and not . . . ? 

Not in her heart?

    Because she taught me to be free I wanted 

to offer her my first letter. To her, in all her 

forms, her ages. I seek only to journey, to 

dream: her ages, the most ancient and the 

most real, the most thrilling to pass before my 

eyes, her texts breathing, despite the