Translators who choose to work on canonized writers can usually lean on an extensive critical apparatus around either the author or the… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Balzac Copy Share Image
The real question should be: what makes a good political poem? The possible answers to that question are both obvious and yet… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Agree Copy Share Image
As the Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe has presciently pointed out, neoliberal corporate globalism threatens to exploit that advantage like never before, and… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Achilles Copy Share Image
I've heard of translators collaborating closely with their authors, sometimes even living with them for a while, but that's not me. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Books Copy Share Image
When it comes to the challenges of the actual process, I soldier on as best I can, on my own. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Challenges Copy Share Image
I came to poetry at fourteen, in the middle of a booming oil-rush town in southern Arabia without a single public library:… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Arabia Copy Share Image
Poetry either pulses with real life or it's just an aborted simulacra. There's no middle ground. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Life Copy Share Image
Whenever poetry and politics are mentioned in the same breath, we tend to miss the point entirely - as I often have… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Asks Copy Share Image
I don't like poems that invent memories, I have enough of my own. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Enough Copy Share Image
That boom town [Abu Dhabi] proved to be the reef against which my family crashed, the story of many who seek the… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Family Copy Share Image
Most of us have been subjected to terrible political poetry at least once or twice in our lifetimes, and so we tend… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Has beens Copy Share Image
Regardless of whether the authors I've translated have been "dead and canonized," or "living and established," or even simply "emerging," I must… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Bases Copy Share Image
Abdellatif [Laâbi] was wildly popular with his students and it wasn't difficult to see why: like them, he knew that average Moroccans… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Average Copy Share Image
One cannot simply decide to write apolitical poetry, in the way one decides to drink lemonade instead of tea, it's far more… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Apolitical Copy Share Image
I'm of the opinion that poetry is always political, and cannot help but be so, regardless of the poet's intent, given that… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Deals Copy Share Image
Dealing with politically-engaged writers of color like Abdellatif Laâbi and Rashid Boudjedra - who ran away from school aged sixteen to fight… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Chance Copy Share Image
[Abdellatif Laâbi] was a poet and worked as a high school teacher; and although he hadn't broken any laws, the Moroccan government… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Broken Copy Share Image
Meanwhile, the disgruntled "natives" of the West remain empty-handed and keep baying for blood, stuck on the caboose of the train, like… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Blood Copy Share Image
In a sense, I never got over Robert Lowell's History. A flawed, infinitely brilliant project I never tire of going back to.… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Bitter Copy Share Image
Take Western nations on both sides of the Atlantic, where xenophobic demagogues have been allowed to turn the law-abiding workers who prop… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Abiding Copy Share Image
Fear knows no borders, and the terminology of hate has seeped into every aspect of life. — Andre Naffis-Sahely Aspect Copy Share Image
To be a political poet means simply to be a poet, and any poet worth their salt will be a political animal… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Animal Copy Share Image
I can't quite see the point of poems like "Wittgenstein Goes for a Walk with A Hawk in Sherwood Forest." I know… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Clever Copy Share Image
Generally risk-averse, specialist translation imprints have also hollowed out a fairly comfortable niche for themselves: they get ninety percent of the profits… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Able Copy Share Image
Some of my colleagues are surprised by how little personal interaction I've had with "my" authors, but I don't translate to go… — Andre Naffis-Sahely Books Copy Share Image