In the Glittering Maw

by Joyce Mansour, C. Francis Fisher (Translator)

The first English-language collection focused on the later works of Joyce Mansour, an Arab-Jewish Surrealist poet who was exiled from Egypt in the 1950s and settled in Paris. Mansour’s late poems chart constellations of desire, femininity, and dream. Considered by Andre Bréton to be the preeminent Surrealist of the post-war period, Mansour brings this masculine movement into a feminine realm never-before-imagined. She insists on a forgotten or perhaps vehemently denied eventuality of women’s their ability to do harm, to be “Why tear fire from the impalpable sky / When it already grows and smolders in me / Why throw your glove into the crowd / Tomorrow is a livid stump.” In the Glittering Maw is poet C. Francis Fisher’s first published translation and includes a preface by eminent Surrealism scholar Mary Ann Caws.

"C. Francis Fisher’s translations of Joyce Mansour’s later poems give fresh voice to a fierce, passionate, sensuous, scandalous cry that has strained to be heard in the Anglophone world for over half a century. It’s about time." —MARK POLIZZOTTI

"Guillaume Apollinaire, Nelly Sachs, Frank O’Hara—how strange to find the magnificent Joyce Mansour, in C. Francis Fischer’s sinewy and imaginative translation, summoning that trio of revolutionary voices! Most of my life has been spent in ignorance of Mansour’s eccentric and eruptive genius. Thanks to this indispensable new translation, I can make amends, and hug close to me this most corporeal and threshold-traversing poet, who seems, like Louise Bourgeois, to be the apostle of fleshly metamorphosis. Torn between difficulty and joy, Mansour makes new—and blissfully out-of-bounds—limbs and organs emerge in every line, like a shower of comets." —WAYNE KOESTENBAUM

"There is of course nothing little in this truly important poet, and this translation is no nibble at her this is a gulp worth gulping." —MARY ANN CAWS

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

Published May 21, 2024

About the author

Joyce Mansour was born Joyce Patricia Adès in Bowden, England to Jewish-Egyptian parents. After a month in Cheshire her parents returned with her to Cairo where she lived until she was twenty. Moving to Paris in 1953 she became one of the best known Surrealist poets, authoring sixteen books of poetry, as well as a number of important prose and theater pieces.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fun as Gavronsky's translations but I mean most of these poems are about eating cum so I still had a good time.

[alicia0w3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

very horny stuff

[maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

surrealist poems throw me for a loop sometimes, but this was an amazing thing to work through. some lines just made me stop and reread them over and over!