Migration of Stars
In this country the stars were not fixedthey could easily fly off in a single go migrate toregions where happiness is less precariousand that's precisely what happenedin fact it was that way with everything life itselfcould fly off the water stop flowing the houseand field vanish just like that in their place aWall blocking the horizona concrete house sprang up followed soon bythousands of others all the sameliving nearby was like camping on the edge of avolcano ready to blow at night the lava gushedout the wolves prowled with their teeth baredthe women threw stones tied knots in theirhandkerchiefs hung blue beads and small crossesaround the children's necks there were more ofthem every daydo you know the sound of an olive tree beinguprooted?or of a bullet striking a man right between theeyes?
Migration des étoiles
Dans ce pays les étoiles n'étaient pas stabiliséeselles pouvaient tout aussi bien s'envoler d'un seulcoup migrer vers des contrées où le bonheur estmoins précaireet c'est ce qui arrivaen fait il en était ainsi de tout la vie même pou-vait s'envoler l'eau s'arrêter de couler la màisonet le champ s'évanouir comme ça pschitt à leurplace un Mur bouche l'horizonune maison de béton surgissait bientôt suivie demilliers d'autres toutes semblableshabiter auprès était comme camper au bord d'unvolcan prêt à exploser la nuit les laves jaillis-saient les loups rôdaient babines retrousséesles femmes avalent beau lancer des cailloux faire desnœuds à leur mouchoir accrocher des perles bleuesou de petites croix au cou des enfants il y en avaittous les jours davantagesavez-vous le bruit que fait un olivier qui s'écroule rac-ines à l'air?et celui d'une balle frappant un homme en plein front?
Feature Date
- June 22, 2023
Series
- Translation
Selected By
Share This Poem
Print This Poem
“Migration of Stars” from Chaos, Crossing: by Olivia Elias.
Published by World Poetry Books on November 15, 2022.
English Copyright © 2022 by Kareem James Abu-Zeid.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

A poet of the Palestinian diaspora, Olivia Elias was born in Haifa in 1944, and writes in French. Her family took refuge in Lebanon in 1948, where she lived until the age of 16. She then moved to Montréal, and finally to France. Characterized by terse language and strong rhythms, her poetry shows a deep sensitivity to the Palestinian cause, the plight of refugees, and human suffering. Her collection Chaos, Crossing translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, was one of World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2022. Her chapbook Your Name Palestine, co-translated by Sarah Riggs and Jeremy Victor, is forthcoming from World Poetry Books.

Kareem James Abu-Zeid, PhD, is a translator of poets and novelists from across the Arab world who translates from Arabic, French, and German. His work has earned him an NEA translation grant, the Sarah Maguire Prize, PEN Center USA’s Translation Award, Poetry Magazine’s translation prize, residencies from the Lannan Foundation and the Banff Centre, a Fulbright Fellowship (Germany), and a CASA Fellowship (Egypt), among other honors. His most recent translations are Olivia Elias’ Chaos, Crossing (World Poetry Books, 2022) and Najwan Darwish’s Exhausted on the Cross (NYRB Poets, 2021). He is also the author of The Poetics of Adonis and Yves Bonnefoy: Poetry as Spiritual Practice. The online hub for his work is www.kareemjamesabuzeid.com.
"Each of Olivia Elias’s powerful poems sparkles with the unexpected: exile puts down roots in time, healing is a Ferris wheel, and loss a slough that leads to language."
- Jennifer Croft
"Olivia Elias, child of the Nakba, is a world citizen, resident at one time or another of Lebanon, Canada, France. But as a poet, she remains a Palestinian, inhabited by the landscape, the language, creating lyrics that speak the sorrow of displacement, and a memory vaster and deeper than any one woman’s, with a restraint that dignifies both grief and rage."
- Marilyn Hacker
"This book is a fierce and tender odyssey around the world and deep inside the human psyche."
- Sylvie Baumgartel
Poetry Daily Depends on You
With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.