Hello Gentle Reader,
Vénus
Khoury-Ghata has sadly died only a little over a month of turning 88 years old.
Khoury-Ghata will forever be remembered as a titan of Lebanese-Francophone literature,
and an absolute singular gem of contemporary French language poetry. While
French poetry, often finds itself more interested in celebrating its pantheon
of legacy poets turned to legends, with an understanding and adherence to form –
though all things considered, there not as bad as the English in this way – Vénus
Khoury-Ghata poetry flowed with a soulful lyricism that embraced a surreal and
complex imagery. Khoury-Ghata’s poetry reviewed and commented on the nature of
womanhood, motherhood, exile, memory, death and what can be described as the unarticulated
forces that inhabit daily life. Vénus Khoury-Ghata unapologetically blended an
appreciation of the Arabic poetic tradition with its sense of Homeric mythic
perspectives with the technical flare of French poetry traditions. Though the
sensuality and exuberant generosity of the lyricism found in Khoury-Ghata’s poetry
is indebted more to the Arabic traditions then the French in which they were
composed. There’s a sense of curiosity to Venus Khoury-Ghata’s poetry and its
embracement of narrative and sustained poetic discourse, which would run
through collections, creating a sense of unity within them. Though they were
cut through with the surreal and dreamscape imagery of the French surrealists
and symbolists. Khoury-Ghata’s path to poetry is perhaps more vocation than it was
instilled passion. Growing up in the Christian quarters of Beirut, Venus Khoury-Ghata
came from otherwise humbling beginnings: her mother was illiterate, while her
father was a policeman who embraced French culture and language and shared it
with his family. Khoury-Ghata often
described reconciling this bisected reality as writing in French from right to
left, reconciling the duality between the Arabic and the French. Vénus
Khoury-Ghata’s literary talents were not just contained to poetry; she is also
a master in prose. Employing the same poetic perspective, weightless sparsity,
and a bent for surreal imagery to explore to engage in the world in prose, with
her personal novel “A House at the Edge of Tears,” recounting the destitution and
degradation of her beloved beautiful brother, who initially inspired her to the
literary world and whose literary ambitions were thwarted and ensnared by drug
addiction and completely obliterated by his incarceration in a psychiatric facility.
Vénus Khoury-Ghata will be remembered as one of the great French language poets
of her generation. A singular visionary poet.
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
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