In Vain I Migrate by Abdellatif Laâbi

Abdellatif Laâbi is a leading Moroccan poet who writes in French. In 1966 he helped found the important artistic journal 'Souffles', in 1972 the journal was banned and in 1974 Laâbi was imprisoned for 8 years for "crimes of opinion" for his political beliefs and his writings. After his release in 1985, he moved to France where he still lives in exile.

His work was translated for the PTC by André Naffis-Sahely, who recently edited 'The Heart of a Stranger' an anthology of exile literature for Pushkin Press: www.pushkinpress.com/product/the-he…of-a-stranger/

The dual-language chapbook introducing the poetry of Abdellatif Laâbi, translated by André Naffis-Sahely can be brought from the PTC website: www.poetrytranslation.org/shop/abdella…abi-chapbook

This is part of our weekly the Dual Poetry Podcast, one poem in two languages from the Poetry Translation Centre. As ever we will be releasing a translated poem each week.

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