Le Désert au crepuscule
The Desert at Dusk

Three excerpts from the book, Tahar Bekri, The Desert At Dusk (bilingual ed. published 2025; French edition, Le Désert au crepuscule, published 2018 in French, and to be released in a bilingual edition in 2025 by Contra Mundum Press. See the book here.

The translations are by Peter Thompson. He reads the poems below in French and English.

Listen to a comment on the text written by the author and read by Peter Thompson:

Listen to the poem in French (read by Peter Thomson, translator)

Listen to the poem in English:

II.

Et je t’entends gémir
Vieux désert
Que de palanquins d’opprobre
Portes-tu sur le dos
Des navires ensablés
Leurs bosses comme des fosses
Dans la fureur du firmament
Tous ces chameaux écumeux
Chancelants au seuil des demeures
Ne suffisent pour retenir les collines
Sous la rosée éplorée

II.

And I hear you moan
Old Desert
How many palanquins of infamy
must you bear on your back
How many ships silted over
their humps like graves
in the rage of the firmament
All these foaming camels
staggering at the threshold of domains
can never hold back the hills
under this tearful dew

Listen to the poem in French:

Listen to the poem in English:

III.

Dis vieux desert
Combien te faut-il de palmeraies orphelines
Pour consoler les palmes
Les ruines de ruines en ruines
Perdant le sommeil
La Nuit te fait-elle si peur
Cette voie lactée
Confondue avec la traînée de poudre
Les météorites fumantes
Dans les vallées de ton cœur

III.

Tell me Old Desert
how many orphaned palm groves
will you need
to console the palms
The ruins of ruins lying in ruin
Is Night so frightening
while you sleep
This milky way
confused with the trail of dust
The smoking meteorites
in the valleys of your heart

Listen to the poem in French:

Listen to the poem in English:

IV.

Et je te vois
Vieux desert
Réveillé en sursaut
D’éclat en éclat
Par les prières récitées à l’envers
Comme des fragments de suie
Les versets des fossoyeurs
Psalmodiés dans l’insolence des chenilles
Enterrant mes limons

IV.

And I see you
Old Desert
startled awake
flash after flash
By the prayers recited backwards
like particles of soot
The verses of the gravediggers
chanted as the insolence of tank-tracks
buries my siltings

Author Notes

Tahar Bekri

Tunisian poet (b. 1951)

The poet was born in 1951 in Gabès, Tunisia. He has lived in Paris since 1976. Bekri writes in both French and Arabic. His thirty published works comprise poetry, essays, and art books. The poetry, awarded various literary distinctions, has been translated into numerous languages ​​and is studied and commented in both academic and artistic works. Awards include the French Language and Literature Prize from the Académie Française, 2019. Bekri has been Honorary Lecturer at the University of Nanterre. Most recent publication: Mon pays, la braise et la brûlure, Ed. Edern, 2025.

Sources

جدلية, Jadaliyya-. “Al-Shabbi’s ‘The Will to Life.’” Jadaliyya – جدلية, https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/23935. Accessed 23 Dec. 2021.

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Fanni is Radnóti's wife
Located near the Tang capital city of Chang’an, site of the modern city of Xi’an in Shaanxi province, in central China.
Soldiers of that time commonly wore a white head cloth, similar to what is still worn by some peasants in China today.  The implication is that the conscripts were so young that they didn’t know how to wrap their head cloths, and needed help from elders.
Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
The area of Guanxi, meaning “west of the passes”, refers to the area around the capital city of Chang’an.
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Before China’s unification under the Qin dynasty in 221 B.C. there were several competing smaller kingdoms.  Han and Qin were two of these kingdoms. Han was located east of famous mountain passes that separated that area from the power base of the Qin dynasty, with its capital in Chang’an. The Qin dynasty itself only lasted about 15 years after unification due to its draconian rule, but soldiers under Qin rule retained a reputation as strong fighters.
Oulart Hollow was the site of a famous victory of the Irish rebels over British troops, which took place on May 27, 1798. The rebels killed nearly all the British attackers in this battle. (Source: Maxwell, W. H. History of the Irish Rebellion in 1798. H. H. Bohn, London 1854, pp 92-93, at archive.org)
The phrase "United Men" is elaborated upon in the Notes section below.

Ghetto

An Italian word meaning “foundry.” It originally referred to a part of the city of Venice where the Jews of that city were forced to live; the area was called “the ghetto” because there was a foundry nearby. The term eventually came to refer to any part of a city in which a minority group is forced to live as a result of social, legal, or economic pressure. Because of the restrictions placed upon them, ghetto residents are often impoverished.

"You’re five nine, I am do-uble two"

A reference to the year 1959 and the year 2020.

"The Currency"

Meaning US dollars - this is drawing attention to the fact that Cuba is effectively dollarized.

"Sixty years with the dom-ino stuck"

This sentence is a reference to the Cold War notion that countries would turn Communist one after the other - like dominos. Cuba was the first domino, but it got stuck - no one else followed through into communism.

رحلنا

رحلنا, or "rahalna," means "we have left."

Habibi

Habibi means "my love."

Ra7eel

Ra7eel, or "raheel," means "departure."

3awda

3awda, or "awda," means "returning."

أهلاً

أهلاً, or "ahalan," means "welcome."

a5 ya baba

a5 ya baba, pronounced "akh ya baba," means "Oh my father."

golpe

Treece translates "golpe" as "beating", which is correct, however misses the secondary meaning of the word: "coup".

Carlos

The “Carlos” referred to in the poem is most likely Carlos Bolsonaro, a politician from Rio de Janeiro and the second son of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president. His and his father’s involvement in Marielle’s murder has been questioned and investigated.