Where Are the Trees Going?

Khoury-Ghata, a Lebanese poet who has lived in France since 1972, states that she "writes in Arabic through the French language," according to translator Hacker's intelligent preface. Khoury-Ghata has published 24 four novels and 20 collections of poems; this is the sixth translated by Hacker, who has actually combined two works here: the surreal lyrics of Where Are the Trees Going interspersed with short prose pieces from The House of Nettles. This strategy may help those who need to look beyond pure image into an identifiable landscape: "Why didn't they go back home, to their village destroyed by Israeli bulldozers…." But there is much to savor in the riddle of the lyric: "her apron drawn on her skin the mother sent us out in the street naked." Each poem returns to a pain-infused village, where trees, stones, and architecture assume a human aspect, as in this richly translated line, "the fence posts have phobias fat as quail in September." All of the work revolves around the mother, who is a blind destructive force (the father enters briefly, with a more intentional violence).