please note. a list of postings after january 12, 2012 can be found hereNOTE. The following is part of Pierre Joris’s ongoing exploration of North African (Maghreb) culture, a work as big & multifaceted as his own sense of the dynamics & far reach of poetic imagination & fancy. Yet the stakes here, as with much real poetry, go well beyond poesis as such, to exemplify & expose an area of religion & sexuality that has been a given in many parts of the world, “from origins to present.” Here the azria (courtesan) asserts the role of the outsider, still not forgotten, to raise new/old powers of body & mind in the service of vision & desire. (J.R.) Adapted by Pierre Joris from Y. Georges Kerhuel’s French versionI am beautiful AzriaI am unfaithful AzriaI am the tender fruitof a tree with tight clustersI smile at everyoneI hate marriage& for no pricewill I admit slaveryI wear no veilI hate all clothmy happiness isbeauty and youthmy black eyes’mysterious gazehas the powerto enthrall my loversmy Queen Kahina faceis more than baitmy mouth is made of honeyperfectly realhe who tastes it oncewill return for moremy chest & its high breastsdraws in the holiest lookswhile below my beltlies nature’s sacred templewhere the faithful come to sinin love my heartoften lies forI am Azria remorseless AzriaI accept the weak and the strongI am carefree Azriaand my life is my lifemy pride comes from my freedommy life is crazy gaiety from the most noble to the ugliestmy lovers are innumerableI am Azria the dancerwho makes women jealousI am the singerI am the croonermy gorgeous voiceopens all doorsCOMMENTARY
[Writes Joris
selbst]: “This eponymous song, arranged by Y. Georges Kerhuel & included in the
Encyclopédie de l’amour en islam Tome 1 (edit. Malek Chabel), speaks to the specific situation of Shawia Berber society in the Aurès mountains (northeastern
Algeria). Mathéa Gaudry, a lawyer at the Appellate Court in
Algiers, wrote about the Shawia courtesans in a treatise on Aurès culture in the 1920s: ‘The power of the Shawia woman does not pale with time. Knowledge of occult sciences, the prerogative of the elder, only reinforces it. […] The
azria is a courtesan who received who she wants and goes where she wants. She sings, dances, plays cards, smokes and goes to cafés. No triviality in her manners; to the contrary: a tranquil self-assurance and often a natural distinction are her mark. Her courtiers’ enthusiasm surrounds her. They all show her a quasi-religious submission. When she intervenes, a fight will stop immediately.’"
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