To forget where I came from
To be silent in all the languages I speak
To give up the different dialects
mingled in my mind
To give up the desire to leave
a far-away street
before I feel what’s missing
To give up the man
who didn’t realise
when we made love
it would be impossible to hurt me
To give up all my maps
on Via della Concillazione
where my lover held his foreign name
between his teeth
To give up my breath
to let the world bend
in my lungs like a branch
To give up my eyes
like scarred marble
to see an entire life in a window
releasing the heaviness of the fog
To give up travelling
to let an old sea reach a new sea
To forget all I gave up
to remember where I come from
to make it speak
Nathalie Handal is is the author 10 books, including Life in a Country Album, and the flash collection The Republics. She has been the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, Fondazione di Venezia, Centro Andaluz de las Letras, the Africa Institute, and the winner of Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing, among others.
To be silent in all the languages I speak
To give up the different dialects
mingled in my mind
To give up the desire to leave
a far-away street
before I feel what’s missing
To give up the man
who didn’t realise
when we made love
it would be impossible to hurt me
To give up all my maps
on Via della Concillazione
where my lover held his foreign name
between his teeth
To give up my breath
to let the world bend
in my lungs like a branch
To give up my eyes
like scarred marble
to see an entire life in a window
releasing the heaviness of the fog
To give up travelling
to let an old sea reach a new sea
To forget all I gave up
to remember where I come from
to make it speak
Nathalie Handal is is the author 10 books, including Life in a Country Album, and the flash collection The Republics. She has been the recipient of awards from the PEN Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, Fondazione di Venezia, Centro Andaluz de las Letras, the Africa Institute, and the winner of Virginia Faulkner Award for Excellence in Writing, among others.
