POETRY TRAVELS with Anna Blasiak and Lisa Kalloo: TONGUE by Nisrine Mbarki, translated by Michele Hutchison



my mother deprived me of her language and herself
my infant tongue was left to the mercy of
harsh monastic sounds on peat
muttered prayers that warded off all things
residual slanging matches from invaders of old
old symbols on the tattooed chins of mothers mothers mothers
since then I have dragged fate along behind me by its crown

in my juvenile throat a cruel pact was made
an arrangement like that of divorced families
for the sake of the child
a togetherness that sanctified means from the days when ideals were gods
gods that protect those who make worthy sacrifices
sacrifices as flawless as incisors
I have drunk swollen milk from your many breasts
without really knowing who was who
in my windpipe you imagined yourselves Nimrod in Babel

لو كنت أؤمن بمفهوم الأمومة لوكنتن امهاتي 
the syntactics were sown in neat beds
side by side
in my larynx

you carved symbols in my vocal chords
drove swords into the roof of my mouth
you pushed wings out through my ribcage
for a possible
exodus
in the cavity of my mouth you revived creatures
whose names were taboo
their sharp curled ⵉⵙⴽⵉⵡⵏ threatening daily to
to banish my uvula
hooves trampled eux and oui and kissed م  and ي
for their flowing forms
to my head you sewed ears kneaded from your tones
ma tête lourde de votre promesses

I have abolished exile
on my tongue an orgy takes place
my uvula spits fire in distress my lips gently blow away borders
Germanic snowflakes dissolve
in ancient Semitic mountain-bastards
boundless marriages are forged every day between my cheeks
gliding smoothly like polished beads in a rosary
time
after time
after time

my tongue is split in its loyalty to North and South
my mother grows old and sometimes speaks her language
which I finally learned
from grandmothers who nourish the earth before drinking themselves

By Nisrine Mbarki

Translated by Michele Hutchison

Nisrine Mbarki is an Amsterdam-based multilingual versatile poet, feminist, writer, curator and literary translator. Her literary work covers different genres like poetry, short stories and theatre. As a literary translator she translates poetry from Arabic and English into Dutch. As a curator she works for different international literary festivals and is member of several literary juries and boards in the Netherlands. In January 2022 she published her poetry oeverloos (shoreless) debut for which she was nominated for the C.Buddingh price, a prize for the best Dutch debut of the year, and for the Herman De Konickprijs, a prize for the best Belgian and Dutch poetry collection of the year.

Michele Hutchison is an editor, translator and blogger. Hutchison was born in Solihull, grew up in Lincolnshire and studied at the universities of East Anglia, Cambridge and Lyon. She worked in British publishing before moving to Amsterdam, heavily-pregnant, in 2004. There she worked as an editor and became a prominent translator of Dutch literature. She lives in a leaky, old dyke house with her Dutch husband and two children. She won the 2020 International Booker Prize for her translation of The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld. She was also awarded the Vondel Prize 2019 for her translation of Stage Four by Sander Kollaard.

POETRY TRAVELS with Anna Blasiak and Lisa Kalloo: TONGUE by Nisrine Mbarki, translated by Michele Hutchison

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