ARABIC POETRY - COME UN NANO CHE AVANZA LENTAMENTE DENTRO LA LEGGENDA

Like threads of laundry stretched between the houses of the old city, Lamis Saidi's poems tie together shapes, colours and images of Algiers, of its white buildings, of the balconies on which life looks out, of the roofs from which sounds, perfumes and desires spread, of the stairs that one climbs with shortness of breath and at alternate rhythms, like the hopes and expectations that are renewed or shattered at every step. In the Algerian poet's latest collection, Come un nano che avanza lentamente dentro la leggenda (Like a Dwarf Advancing Slowly into Legend), city and poetry seem to rest on the same white walls, lean on the same pillars, feel the weight of the same steps that retrace history and from history creep into legend, until they reach Adam and his wonderment before the words to be spoken, words that poetry knows how to make explode with life. Is it possible to translate this bodily connection with language and words and with the letters of the Arabic alphabet and the images they can evoke? Lamis Saidi and Valentina Balata discuss language and poetry, ideas and forms, fantasy and worlds.

Reference book: “Come un nano che avanza lentamente dentro la leggenda”by Lamis Saidi (Centro Studi ILA, 2023)