I can’t say that I’m well equipped to judge poetry, let alone translated scholarly works, but I was really excited to see this publication translated to English and featuring a French/ Djiboutian scholar. I certainly can give a layman’s perspective on the art, but hope that a more critical eye takes the time to review it. Thanks to the publisher for access to the ARC. I appreciated the translator’s note by Nancy Naomi Carlson at the beginning. It provided some much needed context and helped me look for a tempo to each poem and appreciate some of the word choices (for example, I’m assuming the use of “raining cats and dogs” is replacement term used for American audiences).
I think this would be best experienced read out loud so I hope that an audiobook version is on the horizon, if not already in the works. I liked the poems that had an obvious (for me at least) rhythm, like in A Short Ballad to Lull the Horizon. Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer series had songs or chants written that had a similar sort of cadence when written on the page. I’m wondering if there are similarities between Djibouti and Nigerian chants/ songs? Perhaps some additional information on the oral traditions of the region and how it would be experienced spoken vs. read would be a nice addition to the forward.