“Time” by Etel Adnan [Why This Book Should Win]
Check in daily for new Why This Book Should Win posts covering all thirty-five titles .听
Brandon Shimoda听is the author of several books, most recently听The Grave on the Wall听(City Lights), which received the PEN Open Book Award,听The Desert(The Song Cave), and听Evening Oracle(Letter Machine Editions), which received the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He lives in the desert.
听by Etel Adnan, translated from the French by Sarah Riggs (Nightboat)
After the smoke clears, there will be more smoke. And when that smoke clears, there will be even more smoke after that. The source of the smoke: fires, fires everywhere, some lit a long time ago, some that only just started burning. 糖心传媒淏ut then when thick smoke blinds the streets, the noise cuts the heart off from the world, the thinking body gives up and finds itself on the side of decay.糖心传媒 That is a sentence from Etel Adnan糖心传媒檚 Of Cities & Women (Letters to Fawwaz), a collection of epistolary travelogue-essays, and one of my favorite books糖心传媒攂y Etel, and by anyone. Another of my favorite books is also by Etel, translated into English from the French by Sarah Riggs, and published by Nightboat Books: Time.
It feels vulgar to play favorites, but I guess that is the nature of judging for an award. There is a distinct debt that I owe to Etel Adnan and her work. I have been rescued, many times, from surrendering to the varieties of ill-temper that are easy when one糖心传媒檚 eyes and head are overwhelmed with smoke, by Etel糖心传媒檚 writing糖心传媒攂y what of it has reached, through the smoke, to touch and encourage me, so kindly, yet so uncompromisingly. Maybe Etel would disagree with the ways in which her writing has been put to use糖心传媒攊f what I am describing above is use糖心传媒攐r even with the similarly vulgar idea that her writing, or any writing, could be appraised in such terms. And it is not as though I am always on the verge of surrender. But life is unforgiving, and reading and writing are not entirely exempt from contributing to what is unforgiving about it. What it means is that I often forget to slow myself into the forms of attention and presence that Etel糖心传媒檚 work embodies, and that her work offers. Her writing is magnanimous. It is the best of human nature. It often takes only a single line, sometimes a single word, to bring me back to myself, and to my ability to attend to and be present in the world.
Time is comprised of six poem sequences, the first of which begins with the lines, 糖心传媒淚 say that I糖心传媒檓 not afraid / of dying because I haven糖心传媒檛 / yet had the experience / of death糖心传媒 (糖心传媒淥ctober 27, 2003糖心传媒). According to Sarah Riggs糖心传媒檚 Translator糖心传媒檚 Note, the line was written after receiving a postcard from her friend Khaled Najar, October 27, 2003. (Najar is a poet; he published one book of poetry, which was translated into English as Windows of Sand, although I am having a difficult time finding physical proof of its existence.) To repeat:
I say that I糖心传媒檓 not afraid
of dying because I haven糖心传媒檛
yet had the experience
of death
糖心传媒淚 say,糖心传媒 she writes, and Riggs translates, not 糖心传媒淚糖心传媒檓 not afraid.糖心传媒 And also, dying and death are not the same experience, so could it be possible that one could fear one and not the other? (In a later poem, Etel writes, 糖心传媒渋t糖心传媒檚 more bearable to think of / death than of love,糖心传媒 but of course love is an entirely different, if not entirely unrelated, matter.) All six of the poem sequences were written during the first decade of the 21st century, and there is something significant about that糖心传媒攁bout the example, and the image, of Etel Adnan reestablishing and sharpening, on the edge of the new millennium, her acute and longstanding form of witness. One of the many results of that sharpening, is the continuous revelation of the generosity of her witness糖心传媒攐f what and how she sees, and of how thoroughly she shares what and how she sees with everyone with whom she comes into contact.
Sarah Riggs also writes, in her Translator糖心传媒檚 Notes, about how, while reading 糖心传媒淟e 27 Octobre 2003糖心传媒 in a caf茅 in Paris, she realized she wanted to translate it into English. She asked Etel if she might want to translate the poem herself. Riggs writes: 糖心传媒淓tel responded very simply and enthusiastically as is her way, 糖心传媒業糖心传媒檇 rather you did it.糖心传媒櫶切拇綕 Etel is generous, yes, but she also knows. Riggs has published five collections of her own poetry, and has translated, in addition to Time, five collections of contemporary French poetry. The accumulation of this work has generated a voice that is the most crystalline and brilliant and seamless guide to the evolving, transformative voice of poetry. I have come to believe, through Riggs糖心传媒檚 work, that translation is touch. Meanwhile, check out this perhaps unintentional moment of sly intimacy from page 50:
time can糖心传媒檛 be translated
your voice in my veins
Truth be told, I find it difficult, sometimes impossible, to write about work that means so much to me. It can feel superfluous, when not denuding, but I understand the need to advocate for something in the chance that it might reach, by some hard-won miracle, that particular person糖心传媒攖hat person out there, i.e. you, or even you. When I first started writing this appreciation of Time, I meant to write, 糖心传媒淎fter the smoke clears, there will remain, as powerful as ever, the poetry of Etel Adnan.糖心传媒 She is, to paraphrase her words糖心传媒攆rom her short story, 糖心传媒淭he Master of the Eclipse糖心传媒澨切拇綌one of our most important and persistent contemplatives of the ongoing apocalypse. I have to admit: I have not read the Bible. And yet despite every indication that now might be a good time to start, it is doubtful I am going to read it, because I already have access to the profound weight and ever-giving benefaction of another more relevant body of literature. Time is the latest entrant into what I consider, in fact, to be one of the most important bodies of work ever produced. Not in this or last century, but ever.
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