{"id":8404,"date":"2012-05-31T17:06:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T21:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=8404"},"modified":"2012-06-08T10:27:24","modified_gmt":"2012-06-08T14:27:24","slug":"hamid-skif","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/hamid-skif\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamid Skif"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/a>From the forthcoming\u00a0Poems for the Millennium 4<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Three Poems by Hamid Skif<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

COUNTER-POEM<\/strong><\/p>\n

PIM PAM POUM
\nToday\u2019s the wedding<\/p>\n

PIM PAM POUM
\nCadillacs,
\nMercedes,
\nVillas.
\nCouscous with hot blood.<\/p>\n

PIM PAM POUM
\nMy hands clenched to paralysis
\nMy lips in my mouth
\nMy sex in front of me
\nI await my sister
\nMy future wife.<\/p>\n

PIM PAM POUM
\nA voice in the dark
\nThe sister supplicating.<\/p>\n

PIM PAM POUM
\nCouscous with hot sperm
\nPIM PAM POUM
\nThe qadi wiping off
\nPIM PAM POUM
\nthe RAPE\u2019s over<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

POEM FOR MY PRICK<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today they are burying my prick of a prick.
\nThe imams surround it,
\nThose ravens of all major feasts
\nPsalmodize
\nIts arrival in Paradise.<\/p>\n

Earlier
\nThey had a long discussion
\nAll about
\nThe possibility of embalming it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

HERE I AM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here I am estranged and gone back
\nto the sources of the copper and the verses
\nI wear brambles, lightning flashes, cold light
\nsprung from the sword.<\/p>\n

The words worn secure the fragile measure of my talk
\nthe white she-camel drinks from the oblique shadow
\nof the palm tree
\nguides me along the voluptuous enigma of her track<\/p>\n

I search for
\nthe hill of ochre and gold
\nthe falcon\u2019s eye
\nthe remainder of a firebrand
\nthe wind\u2019s bed
\nthe voices of the deserted man<\/p>\n

In Tipaza it is the hour of the olive trees
\ntheir leaves sing the psalms and
\ndrape the open sepulchers<\/p>\n

I walk clad in the breaths stolen from the tombs
\nin fragments of lost
\nstars
\nof petals found on the walls of time
\nI sing sweet cantilenas of freedom
\nI follow the traces of the knights of sand
\nthe neighing of their mounts
\nthe odor of their clotted blood
\nEvery halt is my dwelling<\/p>\n

I search for the ink-well of the centuries
\nthe black rose of salt
\na scream of fire
\na tear of stone
\nwash your presence of its wounds.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Translation from French by P.J.<\/p>\n

COMMENTARY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hamid Skif, nom de plume<\/em> of Mohammed Benmebkhout, was born in Oran in 1951, where he graduated from high school before working as a journalist for the APS in Ouargla, Oran & Tipaza. In 1997, under threat from the islamic terrorists, he emigrated to Germany where he died on 18 March 2011. Although primarily a poet, Skif also published several novels as well as short stories. His early poems were published in the cultural page of R\u00e9publique<\/em>, a newspaper of Oran. He became more widely known thanks to the inclusion in Jean S\u00e9nac\u2019s anthology of a breathtaking & rule-breaking poem called PIM PAM POUM which denounced machismo & the taboo of virginity all-present in Algerian society. Hamid Skif\u2019s poetry promote hope for a better life in which \u201cthe citizens of beauty\u201d could love & dream, the hope of the decades of the 70s & 80s when les barbus<\/em> (the bearded ones = the Islamic fundamentalists) had not yet gained the upper hand in the cities. His last volume of poems, Ile-Esp\u00e9rance (Hope Island), published in 2005, professes a certain serenity, tinted by melancholy: \u201cIt is time to sleep \/ this morning no one will come to speak to the ghosts \/ that live by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the forthcoming\u00a0Poems for the Millennium 4: Three Poems by Hamid Skif COUNTER-POEM PIM PAM POUM Today\u2019s the wedding PIM PAM POUM Cadillacs, Mercedes, Villas. Couscous with hot blood. PIM PAM POUM My hands...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[849,89,91,103],"tags":[1228],"class_list":["post-8404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-algeria","category-poems-for-the-millennium","category-poetry","category-translation","tag-hamid-skif"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8404"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8463,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8404\/revisions\/8463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}