UNIVERSITY SULTANE MOULAY SLIMANE, FACULTY of LETTERS and HUMAN SCIENCES, BENI MELLAL Master: Translation, Information Technologies

and Languages Module: Translation Techniques, 2007-8

The Anthem of the Solitary in Full Voice A translation of the Essay:

Written by Rachid Barhoune

:
) (
"Ta traduction est vraiment russie, c'est un 'texte' en lui mme. Le texte se donne laire facilement. A+" e-mail Fri, 14 Dec 2007 Rachid Barhoune,

Translation by:
Mohamed Jaafari n13/27L

Supervised By
Prof. Dr. Redouan Saidi

2007/2008
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The Anthem of the Solitary in Full Voice

Translated by Mohamed Jaafari When the poet Idris Al Mliani chooses the title In Full Voice for his collection of poems, the reader is not to think that he will read his poem out, screaming, but its meaning is that he will lead the poetry farther towards an impossible attempt at an utmost exhaustion of what the sound can carry from fullness. And the impossibility complex is the pleasure complex. So, the meaning is not the power of the voice but its density, rhythm and poeticalness. Lets venture here with a minor comparison between the voice and the uniqueness. The life of a poet is dependent on the voice. Then, many are the poems that are published, so that the forgetfulness scatters them like the autumn leaves, and only the poems with magnified voice remain. And the poets are many, but the unique voice is scarce. Let us try together to read this density and fullness in the collected poems entitled In Full Voice.

A- The voice and death

The voice is noticeably present in the collection of poems, generating its metaphorical networks and semantic echoes. It falls within the impossibility complex. Thats a running mate to life. So, when the telephone ceases ringing in the apartment, in the first poem of the collection, that is, in the absence of the voice, the reader is aware that he is in front of death. The voice disappears, life too. It is the poeticalness of the silent scene. It is meaningful though without speech. And in the centre of the scene, a turtle is looking for a caring hand that turns plant into water. 022.25.86.81 It doesnt ring The fixed telephone In the house The tortoise lonely walking in the room In search of a hand dropping from its fingers The lettuce into water. We all may have guessed that the tortoise concerned is the most famous poetic characters of Mohamed Zafzaf. Mohamed Zafzaf is present in an elegiac trilogy to which the poet has given a comprehensive title, The Great Poet, and small subtitles that are A Dialogue Late at Night, Dreaming of Moscow, and Low Homes where the poeticalness of the

speaking scenes is apparent without snivel. They are scenes that open up to a time game related to the insistent reason of memory: Ill come to you tomorrow In gentle pace Laden with sorrow and yearn

p.11

The scenes also speak of death not as a transcendent, existential concept but as a surreptitious inherent element of the depth of the movement and life, penetrating moments of comfort and playing nights. For each a share of the death we live for and by it In the life of prosperity Only a few minutes The Prince of Rhymes Added to it Seconds immolated to the smoke It is also a pretext to refer the crocodile tears Sleep deeply then Oh, lover So far so near to reach Dont bother With the shattering of the blades Nor the tear shedding praise p. 14-15 The scenes talk about metamorphosis when the linden bears the neon; and the professionals of consolation and praise rush up. In each direction There are more or less comforters and flatterers Depending on the loyal people p.47 For this reason, it is not strange that we find the poet borrows this introductory text as an entrance to his triple-branched elegy: How good is death as beverage!

p.12

B. The Voice and Hosting.

The voice in the poems is also the voices of texts and those of the poets coming from different places and periods of time. As you read this poem or that, you encounter a poet or a section of the text or style of famous saying in an ample, controversial dialogue. There is a poetical hosting that is open to experiences, creating a tree with its related intellectual and artistic creations.

He told me: Stop here! And I stopped At the wave of Canne, riding The horseback of the wind and the glass!

p19

Lets note how the wounded crept into the folds of words and the gentleness of meaning, holding his glass and riding the waves. As the glass brought about Oumro Alkaiss, it also brings another solemn voice: Was I but the second of two A cigarette and a glass! p.58 Lets contemplate these texts that give the voice of the poems its plenum. Never ask for love even in China p.26 Are they seven or eight? How long did they stay? God knows! p. 43 And Noah is not crying To bring you back life Nor singing revelation Brings back life to us

p. 77

C. The singular voice in the plural

The paradox seemed obvious in the giving of the poet the title "In Full Voice to the poem that entitled the whole collection. In the poem, the poet declares it is the beginning and end of himself, his cohesion and stuff. And that nothing else is conductive to him but himself. So, the expression In Full Voice may suggest cheerfulness, rhetorical and the oratorical propensity that refrain from delving into the matters of the individual self. However, the talk about the self in this poem is not that of cocooned narcissism, or supreme abstract, but it is the process of discovery of blithe, simple, individual and personal presence. The process of weakening employs the different forms of the first person singular either connected or detached. About this, the poet says: I am another I walk and he does In front of me And behind Me I have My companion I am and my way I am And I am on myself evidence I lean on and care for myself I am on me merciful 4

I am clear And a disciple and magnificent sheikh

p. 48-49

The poet gives himself the right to celebrate his simple personal being far away from the logic of hiding, and close to derision that focuses on the manifestations of excessive and hypocrite seriousness. And I laugh loudly When you spit on the turban of a respectful old man Who denudate with his look the womens gowns p51 This journey towards the unique self in its simplicity, from bottom to top, is a kind of personal self image and its characteristics, differentiating between freedom, childishness, love, life, honesty, irony, and loyalty to friends and names that have departed: Zafzaf, Nadir and Ali, also to places of amusement and friendship: Beni Mellal, Moscow, Istanbul and others While the poet declares that he goes on and doesnt look forward to nothing but to his words to go on, fly and fall on womens breasts and posteriors, and its no problem to him whether they leave or stay, he comes back and notices the manifestations of the wicked era, where corruption is widespread: Is the country hallucinating The country which each time corruption hit I said: my heart is on my country And I wept in blood And turn to the souk Curse the gods of dates Exposing it for sale p.;; This return, but on the basis of the right to simplicity, difference and freedom, takes the form of disdain to some types of humans who symbolize the peculiarities of the atrocious present time. And here emerges anew the technique of drawing the personal image. This can be illustrated by this part: That nice nationalist person spirited For himself only He may be perfect in fact But not very artful Except in praising the camera p.94 And this person doesnt stop chewing his words, asking the vast majority to sacrifice for his treasury which is on the verge of the heart attack. Thus the attributes flow, rising towards tense verbal violence, revealing its words : rhinoceros, bulimia , the 5

toothless, ill-left eyed, deafness in one ear, paralysis of other things. That imaging of this enthusiastic person is complemented with the verbal game to the extent of committing a crime on his earnest tie which is left neither knotted nor untied as is his not ironed node of the dark suit. (from the poem Mr. Kwan Joan p. 62-63 ) The same mockery comes out in the poem entitled Monalika , where Abel discovers one day that his organ is robbed from him, for this reason: He launches His warning to all the spies And the informers Search for it right now how can I govern without which is not named- my amorous millions? p44; The talk about drawing personal images in the collection of poems is also bringing about the dimensions of friendship and loyalty to places and persons. Here, we come through the images of "Bourquiya Hassan and Abdul Karim Jawaiti mixed with the redolence of space and myth. So, it is Beni Mellal that delineate the features of Hassan and tickles him to create text out of him. And it is the place and its myths that outline the features of Jawaiti, confused with images of figures from the popular local history ( see my poems Hassan Bourquiya and Abdul Karim jwaiti pages 4339). And loyalty leads, on the other hand, to the recalling of the voice in its concreteness. And here comes the loyalty to the language in its original face so that the book opens up by words which are echoes of relationship and friendship: Dharagui Moi,CAC Della and Blokha and other voices and words. The collection of poems is thus full with harmonious and responsive voices. There is what is personal and collective. There are texts and guest poets. There are sarcasm and personal images which are drawn by inspiration from loyalty to places and people, and also because of motivation to satirize examples of bad present time. And there is essentially the affiliation to the universal writing tree with its great symbols. Here once again, loyalty is present; so, corresponding to Penelope with her continuously flowing text is the myth of Karam and Asli in her garment with buttons that unfasten just to knot up in order to take us to the heart of the metaphor of writing.

1. Reading in the collection of poems In Full Voice, Idriss Almalyani Ed.1, Printing Annajah Aljadida, Casablanca, 2005. 7. . : . . 2. 2007

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Appedix 2 Feedback of the writer of the original text , Rachid Barhoune, on the translated version
Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:55:07 +0100 (CET)

rachid barhoune <barhounes@yahoo.fr> wrote:

Bonjour Jaafari

C'est un vrai plaisir de recevoir ton e-mail. Je te flcite pour ton travail et aussi pour la discussion que vous avez en classe. Tu sais, ce n'est pas important d'avoir la rponse, ce qui importe ce sont les discussions et l'change des ides. Moi aussi je participe avec vous tous. Le sens de est non pas l'unique ni l'unifi, mais le solitaire, celui qui choisit d'tre seul pour rflchir, crire, avoir le plaisir d'couter ses propres voix et les chos du monde qui lui parviennent de loin. Tous les potes, les philosophes et les penseurs sont c'est dire des solitaires, des gens qui aiment la solitude. Pas toujours, c'est vrai, mais parfois pour crer leur petit monde, partir du grand monde o les autres vivent. Je te remercie pour ton message. Tu passes un grand bonjour tes amis en classe, tes professeurs. Quand tu auras fini la traduction, j'aimerais la voir A trs bientt
Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:34:26 +0100 (CET) From: "rachid barhoune" barhounes@yahoo.fr To: "Mohamed Jaafari" <jaafarimd@yahoo.com>

" Ta traduction est vraiment russie, c'est un 'texte' en lui mme. Le texte se donne lire facilement. Je t'en remercie. A+"

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