When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me [Longlisted for the 2023 National Translation Award in Poetry] - Paperback

by Kazim Ali (Author)

'If I had only one word to define this book, it would be aliveness-a synonym, plausibly, in Ananda Devi's idiolect, for freedom. Everything-from the Night in the title, to skin, to mud, to a green sari, to sound, to Time itself-is alive ... Translated with calm dexterity and breathtaking attention by Kazim Ali, this is a collection that held my body-eyes and heart and brain-in its jaws from beginning till end.' -- Karthika Nair

Ananda Devi's poetry singes and sings of the body electric, bound by the complex, colonial island politics of Mauritius and yet boundless like the waters that surround it. This book of harsh lyric and enigmatic and erotic prose, takes on a second life in Kazim Ali's sensitive translation.

Author Biography

Kazim Ali's books include several volumes of poetry, including Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books' New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One's Blue; and the cross-genre text Bright Felon. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet.