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When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me
‘If I had only one word to define this book, it would be aliveness-a synonym, plausibly, in Ananda Devi’s idiolect, for freedom. Everything-from the Night in the title, to skin, to mud, to a green sari, to sound, to Time itself-is alive … Translated with calm dexterity and breathtaking attention by Kazim Ali, this is a collection that held my body-eyes and heart and brain-in its jaws from beginning till end.’ — Karthika Nair
Ananda Devi’s poetry singes and sings of the body electric, bound by the complex, colonial island politics of Mauritius and yet boundless like the waters that surround it. This book of harsh lyric and enigmatic and erotic prose, takes on a second life in Kazim Ali’s sensitive translation.
Ananda Devi’s poetry singes and sings of the body electric, bound by the complex, colonial island politics of Mauritius and yet boundless like the waters that surround it. This book of harsh lyric and enigmatic and erotic prose, takes on a second life in Kazim Ali’s sensitive translation.
120 pages, Paperback
First published September 22, 2011
5 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Ananda Devi
50 books105 followersAnanda Devi is a Mauritian writer. Her novel, Eve de ses décombres, won the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie in 2006, as well as several other prizes. It was adapted for the cinema by Sharvan Anenden and Harrikrisna Anenden. In 2007, Devi received the Certificat d'Honneur Maurice Cagnon du Conseil International d'Études Francophones.[1] She has since won other literary prizes, including the Prix du Rayonnement de la langue et de la littérature française of the Académie française. During 2010 she was bestowed with Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 122 reviews
January 13, 2023
A book full of beautiful raw poem that go deep in and shines what's inside. A bit of madness. I love that it translates from French and keeps the original right by the English.
October 2, 2022
Before reading this collection of poetry, I've never read anything written by Mauritian writers. While I certainly can appreciate its content, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, there are poems that have this lyrical portrayal of nature with allusions on despair, relationships, body image, sexuality and inner feelings of an outer world, on the other hand there are graphic images of violence and decay, which make me uncomfortable. Maybe, that was the whole point of them and I just didn't appreciate the hidden meaning.
Although that was not exactly my cup of tea, I would still recommend to checking it out if you are a poetry reader.
I want to mention the work of the translator Kazim Ali, who has done a thorough job of conveying Ananda Devi's work for English speaking readers (the collection has been translated from French). There is also a short note on translation and an interview between the translator and the author at the end of the book, which I haven't expected, but really liked.
Please check trigger warnings list before picking it up (self-harm, trauma, suicide, depression - these topics are talked about in details).
Although that was not exactly my cup of tea, I would still recommend to checking it out if you are a poetry reader.
I want to mention the work of the translator Kazim Ali, who has done a thorough job of conveying Ananda Devi's work for English speaking readers (the collection has been translated from French). There is also a short note on translation and an interview between the translator and the author at the end of the book, which I haven't expected, but really liked.
Please check trigger warnings list before picking it up (self-harm, trauma, suicide, depression - these topics are talked about in details).
June 14, 2024
I would love to thank HarperCollins Publishers India, Ananda Devi and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
I read this one last year in November and I appreciated that at the end we get to see a conversation with Kazim Ali, who translated this book in english for more people to read it. This collection had a big impact on him and he wanted the world to know about it.
The poems were strong and powerful, but something felt like missing for me. However, I recommend this one to readers that enjoy raw and honest poetry.
I read this one last year in November and I appreciated that at the end we get to see a conversation with Kazim Ali, who translated this book in english for more people to read it. This collection had a big impact on him and he wanted the world to know about it.
The poems were strong and powerful, but something felt like missing for me. However, I recommend this one to readers that enjoy raw and honest poetry.
August 28, 2025
I received a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me is a collection of poetry by a Mauritian poet. This may be a great read to others, but it wasn't one I connected with personally, unfortunately.
The poems are well written and feature relationships, sexuality, body image, nature, despair and emotions, depression, self-harm, and inner turmoil and feelings with images relating to decay, violence, and darkness. Maybe it was the wrong time for me to pick this book up, I'm not sure, but I just couldn't enjoy it as I'd hoped to. The book is translated, so maybe that was a part of why it didn't connect with me? but the translator did a fantastic job.
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me is a collection of poetry by a Mauritian poet. This may be a great read to others, but it wasn't one I connected with personally, unfortunately.
The poems are well written and feature relationships, sexuality, body image, nature, despair and emotions, depression, self-harm, and inner turmoil and feelings with images relating to decay, violence, and darkness. Maybe it was the wrong time for me to pick this book up, I'm not sure, but I just couldn't enjoy it as I'd hoped to. The book is translated, so maybe that was a part of why it didn't connect with me? but the translator did a fantastic job.
January 30, 2021
Read on blog: https://soundingwords.blogspot.com/20...
‘That my tomorrow be a yesterday
Since nothing is left to accomplish
Nothing to build or to destroy
Nothing has already become; Never.’
Ananda Devi’s When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me, translated from the French by Kazim Ali, is published by Harper Perennial.
It is cold outside. There is darkness shimmering on my room’s window. I just finished last pages of this poetry book. I have been trying to recollect the moments for this piece and come up with a single word ‘fierce’.
Here, I am borrowing the words from Emily Dickinson, ‘If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?’
‘Women of sand, the wind erase us/ We will dance no more upon thorns.’ While reading her, I could feel what poetry can do to our sensibilities. The book explores the very idea of silences, woman carries around all her life. ‘Of a woman erased/ By her bruises’
Basically, this book consists of three sections, poetry, prose, and an insightful interview between Ananda Devi and Kazim Ali. Each page carries the facet of prism that depicts emotional element of womanhood, intimate and messier experiences of her body, witnessing the violence and condition of tender minds on some island,
She transforms the rage and power into common landscape where one could sense the myriad revelations of woman’s life with lines like these ‘I only speak of it/ To believe I have lived a little../ And we live in the invisible/ Free but crippled, crippled but free.’
Poetry of Ananda Devi, gets us to ponder over consciousness and rituals of a women body that normally, we don’t even consider to be think of. She weaves these verses in a poem ‘Blood amniotic fluid slickness from your core/ All that’s made you women/ But is that all.'
The title poem of ‘When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me’ is serene yet terrific as sharp as double-edged sword, ‘When the night agrees to speak to me/ It is with a blade/ That slices/ Into the places of certainty/ That carves/ Love into loneliness.’
Besides that a series of prose talks about the power of words, Just these few lines of first prose, which is masterfully put the strength of Devi’s writing “Words erect the wall of lies and icy danger of shame without poetry you would have under your fingers only the skeleton of silence a mummified skin that could have neither flesh nor sensuality every glance an empty orbit lips furled around uselessness.’
Also, Devi examines the situation of tender hands. A place exists amidst us all where they had to hold guns in place of toys and notebooks. Grief is smallness of dreams, and human survival in an inhuman world. Just look at the imagery, Devi created here ‘The killing blow you do not see coming but from your exploded mouth hangs the mud of your dreams and with this in your hands you will know nothing of the others but their fear you will bend by your rage but no other body will have ever offered you love. ‘
I felt her each free-verse sonorous and stone-cold, Vulnerability travels through one page to other, As if someone touches the wounded reality of life with soft feather.
Add to that, this book contains the original poems as well; if you speak French then it is treat for your senses.
In sensible translation of Kazim Ali, this book defies boundaries of language and form; it also shows how our souls interlaced with pain and love, dreams and self-identity, curiosity to know oneself and that internal fight being alienated.
I think one must read marvelous body of work of Ananda Devi. There is fierceness in her writing that makes you numb and then alive. That’s the only way she knows to exist on pages and in readers’ hearts. READ!
(Can’t thank you enough Vivek Tejuja and HarpercollinsIndia for the review copy.)
‘That my tomorrow be a yesterday
Since nothing is left to accomplish
Nothing to build or to destroy
Nothing has already become; Never.’
Ananda Devi’s When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me, translated from the French by Kazim Ali, is published by Harper Perennial.
It is cold outside. There is darkness shimmering on my room’s window. I just finished last pages of this poetry book. I have been trying to recollect the moments for this piece and come up with a single word ‘fierce’.
Here, I am borrowing the words from Emily Dickinson, ‘If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?’
‘Women of sand, the wind erase us/ We will dance no more upon thorns.’ While reading her, I could feel what poetry can do to our sensibilities. The book explores the very idea of silences, woman carries around all her life. ‘Of a woman erased/ By her bruises’
Basically, this book consists of three sections, poetry, prose, and an insightful interview between Ananda Devi and Kazim Ali. Each page carries the facet of prism that depicts emotional element of womanhood, intimate and messier experiences of her body, witnessing the violence and condition of tender minds on some island,
She transforms the rage and power into common landscape where one could sense the myriad revelations of woman’s life with lines like these ‘I only speak of it/ To believe I have lived a little../ And we live in the invisible/ Free but crippled, crippled but free.’
Poetry of Ananda Devi, gets us to ponder over consciousness and rituals of a women body that normally, we don’t even consider to be think of. She weaves these verses in a poem ‘Blood amniotic fluid slickness from your core/ All that’s made you women/ But is that all.'
The title poem of ‘When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me’ is serene yet terrific as sharp as double-edged sword, ‘When the night agrees to speak to me/ It is with a blade/ That slices/ Into the places of certainty/ That carves/ Love into loneliness.’
Besides that a series of prose talks about the power of words, Just these few lines of first prose, which is masterfully put the strength of Devi’s writing “Words erect the wall of lies and icy danger of shame without poetry you would have under your fingers only the skeleton of silence a mummified skin that could have neither flesh nor sensuality every glance an empty orbit lips furled around uselessness.’
Also, Devi examines the situation of tender hands. A place exists amidst us all where they had to hold guns in place of toys and notebooks. Grief is smallness of dreams, and human survival in an inhuman world. Just look at the imagery, Devi created here ‘The killing blow you do not see coming but from your exploded mouth hangs the mud of your dreams and with this in your hands you will know nothing of the others but their fear you will bend by your rage but no other body will have ever offered you love. ‘
I felt her each free-verse sonorous and stone-cold, Vulnerability travels through one page to other, As if someone touches the wounded reality of life with soft feather.
Add to that, this book contains the original poems as well; if you speak French then it is treat for your senses.
In sensible translation of Kazim Ali, this book defies boundaries of language and form; it also shows how our souls interlaced with pain and love, dreams and self-identity, curiosity to know oneself and that internal fight being alienated.
I think one must read marvelous body of work of Ananda Devi. There is fierceness in her writing that makes you numb and then alive. That’s the only way she knows to exist on pages and in readers’ hearts. READ!
(Can’t thank you enough Vivek Tejuja and HarpercollinsIndia for the review copy.)
February 7, 2024
What a beautiful collection of poetry. When The Night Agrees To Speak To Me was my first exposure to Ananda Devi's work and what an amazing collection it was. It had me feeling SO many emotions as Devi's poetry dives into the colonial past of her home, Mauritius. The fact that Kazim Ali's translation of Devi's collection starts each poem with the original French version makes it feel so unique as you can see the differences and even feel different emotions between them as well as be beautifully sensitive to the meaning beneath the words.
Overall, When The Night Agrees To Speak To Me is an amazing collection of heartfelt poems that hold boundless emotions like the waters surrounding Mauritius. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves poetry.
Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers India for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Overall, When The Night Agrees To Speak To Me is an amazing collection of heartfelt poems that hold boundless emotions like the waters surrounding Mauritius. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves poetry.
Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers India for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
February 3, 2021
Poetry and I share a tumultuous relationship. There are times I love it with all my heart, even though I fleetingly remember lines. There are times I hate it so much, that I don’t want to read the genre again. But it is always extreme. This love or the hate. Nothing in- between. Off late, it is veering toward more love, and for that I am grateful. We all evolve. Thank God for that.
Ananda Devi’s poetry takes a while to get used to, like any collection of poems. Just that this isn’t any other collection. Her tone, her structure, the subtle hints of expression – the saying and not saying – the exquisite way in which language lends itself – even though it’s a translation, is just stunning. There are poems and then there are three prose poems, which go on quite beautifully.
Her poems do take some time to get into. The themes are evident: sometimes a little bit of longing, a burst of emotions, surpassing all norms of gender (all these poems to my mind were gender-neutral and that was absolutely fantastic), speaking of the body, of sleeplessness, of desire that isn’t accentuated, and about aging and the body not in control as it moves through time.
The translation by Kazim Ali is what Ananda Devi intended. The translations were read by her, they went through a process – back and forth and reached the version we read. As Kazim Ali says the task of translation was “less karaoke and more full-blown drag”. There is an interview with Ananda Devi at the end of the book, and a note by Mohit Chandna (an Assistant Professor in French and Francophone Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, India) that sum up the book beautifully – the poems from head to toe, from start to finish, from insomnia to deep sleep.
Ananda Devi’s poetry takes a while to get used to, like any collection of poems. Just that this isn’t any other collection. Her tone, her structure, the subtle hints of expression – the saying and not saying – the exquisite way in which language lends itself – even though it’s a translation, is just stunning. There are poems and then there are three prose poems, which go on quite beautifully.
Her poems do take some time to get into. The themes are evident: sometimes a little bit of longing, a burst of emotions, surpassing all norms of gender (all these poems to my mind were gender-neutral and that was absolutely fantastic), speaking of the body, of sleeplessness, of desire that isn’t accentuated, and about aging and the body not in control as it moves through time.
The translation by Kazim Ali is what Ananda Devi intended. The translations were read by her, they went through a process – back and forth and reached the version we read. As Kazim Ali says the task of translation was “less karaoke and more full-blown drag”. There is an interview with Ananda Devi at the end of the book, and a note by Mohit Chandna (an Assistant Professor in French and Francophone Studies at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, India) that sum up the book beautifully – the poems from head to toe, from start to finish, from insomnia to deep sleep.
June 8, 2025
This was my introduction to Ananda Devi’s work, and what a fascinating experience it turned out to be! Many of the poems are interwoven with themes of despair, while also reflecting deeply on relationships, women's bodies, sexuality, and inner emotional landscapes. At the same time, the poet does not shy away from confronting violence and the lingering shadows of colonial legacies.
Alongside the poems are three prose pieces that stand apart in tone and intensity. These narratives expand the emotional terrain of the book, channeling rage, frustration, and sorrow with greater directness and urgency. They add another dimension to the collection, offering a longer, more visceral reflection on pain and resistance.
The translation, handled with great sensitivity by Kazim Ali, is itself of particular note. His translator's note and interviews with Devi reveal the care and nuanced thought he brought to the process. The result is a collection that retains the delicate tone, subtle expressions, and layered silences of the original – the “saying and not saying” that gives the poems their unique depth.
Overall, I found this to be a deeply rewarding read. Though by the end, I was left wanting just a bit more than I found – not because the collection lacked anything, but because it opened up so many spaces that I longed to explore further.
Alongside the poems are three prose pieces that stand apart in tone and intensity. These narratives expand the emotional terrain of the book, channeling rage, frustration, and sorrow with greater directness and urgency. They add another dimension to the collection, offering a longer, more visceral reflection on pain and resistance.
The translation, handled with great sensitivity by Kazim Ali, is itself of particular note. His translator's note and interviews with Devi reveal the care and nuanced thought he brought to the process. The result is a collection that retains the delicate tone, subtle expressions, and layered silences of the original – the “saying and not saying” that gives the poems their unique depth.
Overall, I found this to be a deeply rewarding read. Though by the end, I was left wanting just a bit more than I found – not because the collection lacked anything, but because it opened up so many spaces that I longed to explore further.
August 28, 2024
Thank you, Harper Collins India, for the copy.
I actually love the entirety of this poetry collection. I am someone who knows and sees the void of emotions in women around me resulting from the trauma of everyday experiences.
This poetry collection describes exactly this and this collection needs to be read more. I feel this collection is very UNDERRATED!
For fans of Rupi Kaur and K.R. Meera, this is your perfect next read.
I actually love the entirety of this poetry collection. I am someone who knows and sees the void of emotions in women around me resulting from the trauma of everyday experiences.
This poetry collection describes exactly this and this collection needs to be read more. I feel this collection is very UNDERRATED!
For fans of Rupi Kaur and K.R. Meera, this is your perfect next read.
January 16, 2021
When the Night Agrees to Speaks to Me starts with a poem that feels and seems like a baby's scream; astonished by nature and equally perplexed by its power. Turning focus to a person, lover perhaps, and using snails, silver tracks and river grasses as blurred tools with meanings heard if pondered upon. "Your ears strain to hear / The voices of those absent / Until the night at last / Agrees to speak to you"
This collection of poetry and visceral prose that sinks deeper in the senses of the reader(s), at first, seems unequivocally something that is flat throughout except for the few verses that give a few gasps and big 'uh-huh...(s)'. Yet, Anita Devi's translations into the English language with proper composition of stanzas that are supported with a few broken rhyme schemes and free verses are enough to raise eyebrows of the audience. In a good way of course. Poetry like this threatens as much as it draws those who are receptive for both.
Digging deeper into lines is one of my hobbies and here I present something that marked my skin: /Certain gestures seem so simple/ they abolish life/ firmly clench again/ your fist on my body/
An avid reader of poetry knows that is seems transcendental yet heavy. A beginner might question. The questions of the collections ranking were raised by myself till I turned the page to "Words Die a Slow Death". Followed by "Poetics of Islands" and "Skin". Three proses that explain poetry through different solids that are compelling to the core of humaneness and quickly grabs the reader to stab the graphite into the page and stretch the mark to the point of period.
Utterly brilliant!
Thank you for the copy @harpercollinsin
This collection of poetry and visceral prose that sinks deeper in the senses of the reader(s), at first, seems unequivocally something that is flat throughout except for the few verses that give a few gasps and big 'uh-huh...(s)'. Yet, Anita Devi's translations into the English language with proper composition of stanzas that are supported with a few broken rhyme schemes and free verses are enough to raise eyebrows of the audience. In a good way of course. Poetry like this threatens as much as it draws those who are receptive for both.
Digging deeper into lines is one of my hobbies and here I present something that marked my skin: /Certain gestures seem so simple/ they abolish life/ firmly clench again/ your fist on my body/
An avid reader of poetry knows that is seems transcendental yet heavy. A beginner might question. The questions of the collections ranking were raised by myself till I turned the page to "Words Die a Slow Death". Followed by "Poetics of Islands" and "Skin". Three proses that explain poetry through different solids that are compelling to the core of humaneness and quickly grabs the reader to stab the graphite into the page and stretch the mark to the point of period.
Utterly brilliant!
Thank you for the copy @harpercollinsin
November 17, 2023
"Poetry is our vein a door without it words die a slow death."
I'm firm believer of — Something is lost in translation. I guess that's what happened with when the night agrees to speak to me, Not at fault of author or translator. It is just how it is. These set of poems did not impress me as they should have.
When you tear up my page
You will know who I was
A wound, an upheaval,
A scrap from a dream
I picked it because I have heard about Ananda Devi, she is an Mauritian Indian who predominantly writes in French, since about 4 decades. Her poems are different from the usual stuff I have read so definitely good but I could not engage with them as I hoped to.
Some of my favourite lines
"The bolts are broken
The door swings open
Forever impossible
That first step outside of myself."
I liked 4 liners better than long poems, Except when night agrees to speak to me which is my favourite.
Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins publisher India for ARC in exchange of an honest review.
I'm firm believer of — Something is lost in translation. I guess that's what happened with when the night agrees to speak to me, Not at fault of author or translator. It is just how it is. These set of poems did not impress me as they should have.
When you tear up my page
You will know who I was
A wound, an upheaval,
A scrap from a dream
I picked it because I have heard about Ananda Devi, she is an Mauritian Indian who predominantly writes in French, since about 4 decades. Her poems are different from the usual stuff I have read so definitely good but I could not engage with them as I hoped to.
Some of my favourite lines
"The bolts are broken
The door swings open
Forever impossible
That first step outside of myself."
I liked 4 liners better than long poems, Except when night agrees to speak to me which is my favourite.
Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins publisher India for ARC in exchange of an honest review.
January 25, 2021
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me
By Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Kazim Ali
As Adam Hall once wrote, "Meanwhile, we might also console ourselves with the thought that certain great poems, and great poetries, are not incomprehensible, but inexhaustible."
It has been such a delight to go through this little collection of poems. I took it with me to the garden on a day when my street was loud with festival noises. In that garden, it kept me company through it myriad metaphors. The poems close around you like night, falling with their soft cadences, punctuated by the sounds of birds and far-away laughter.
Ananda Devi's poems bring to us a spectrum of themes: womanhood, sexuality, sensuality, the creeping of old-age, the violence and beauty of living on an island nation. There is joy, and there is anger. Devi's collection talks about the body, particularly the female body, uses it as landscape and metaphor. A metaphor for the glories that encompass the experience of being a woman, a metaphor for what violence does to female bodies.
A prose-poetry piece in this collection also takes us to the island country where children are given guns instead of books, suffering instead of stories. A place that is becoming (like the entire world, apparently) more and more comfortable taking away childhoods.
Towards the end of the collection is an interesting exchange of emails between Ananda Devi and Kazim Ali that lend more insight into her work. A total plus!
In the dexterous and more-than-capable hands of Kazim Ali, we come to these poems. We are held in thrall and they unravel from a series of thirty poems, to pieces of prose-poetry. Poems and pieces that are sparsely punctuated, if at all. The lines run at you and then through you, leaving you changed in some way.
We are given the French version on every even-numbered page, and it's English translation on every odd-numbered page. To hear these poems read out loud by a friend who is fluent in French was a special treat.
I am so glad that I was able to read this collection. My thanks to @vivekisms @harpercollinsin @harperperennial for sending this rich, musical, and all-round lovely collection of poems.
By Ananda Devi, translated from the French by Kazim Ali
As Adam Hall once wrote, "Meanwhile, we might also console ourselves with the thought that certain great poems, and great poetries, are not incomprehensible, but inexhaustible."
It has been such a delight to go through this little collection of poems. I took it with me to the garden on a day when my street was loud with festival noises. In that garden, it kept me company through it myriad metaphors. The poems close around you like night, falling with their soft cadences, punctuated by the sounds of birds and far-away laughter.
Ananda Devi's poems bring to us a spectrum of themes: womanhood, sexuality, sensuality, the creeping of old-age, the violence and beauty of living on an island nation. There is joy, and there is anger. Devi's collection talks about the body, particularly the female body, uses it as landscape and metaphor. A metaphor for the glories that encompass the experience of being a woman, a metaphor for what violence does to female bodies.
A prose-poetry piece in this collection also takes us to the island country where children are given guns instead of books, suffering instead of stories. A place that is becoming (like the entire world, apparently) more and more comfortable taking away childhoods.
Towards the end of the collection is an interesting exchange of emails between Ananda Devi and Kazim Ali that lend more insight into her work. A total plus!
In the dexterous and more-than-capable hands of Kazim Ali, we come to these poems. We are held in thrall and they unravel from a series of thirty poems, to pieces of prose-poetry. Poems and pieces that are sparsely punctuated, if at all. The lines run at you and then through you, leaving you changed in some way.
We are given the French version on every even-numbered page, and it's English translation on every odd-numbered page. To hear these poems read out loud by a friend who is fluent in French was a special treat.
I am so glad that I was able to read this collection. My thanks to @vivekisms @harpercollinsin @harperperennial for sending this rich, musical, and all-round lovely collection of poems.
May 31, 2022
I have a love-hate relationship with poetry. I don't tend to read much of it, but I am trying to read outside of my usual genres, and I have to say that this book was a very pleasant surprise. It was originally written in French and the translation did a great job of maintaining the lyricism and portraying the deep meanings. The book was split into three sections - poems, prose and interviews. The poems section was my favourite, but I really enjoyed reading the interviews too. It added a more personal touch to the book.
The prose took some time to get into and understand fully, but the messages were clear and I'll be thinking about them for some time.
Overall, this was a beautiful collection of poetry about the struggles of femininity and life in general, and I would recommend it to any fans of this genre.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The prose took some time to get into and understand fully, but the messages were clear and I'll be thinking about them for some time.
Overall, this was a beautiful collection of poetry about the struggles of femininity and life in general, and I would recommend it to any fans of this genre.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
April 7, 2022
Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial India for the chance to read and review When The Night Agrees to Speak To Me by Ananda Devi!
This is the first time I’m hearing of Ananda Devi, and this is also the first time I’m reading a book by an author from Mauritius.
“That my tomorrow be a yesterday
Since nothing is left to accomplish
Nothing to build or to destroy
Nothing has already become: Never. “
As a whole this is a small book! Most of the poems are short, and the book also contains an interview with her. I liked the interview because I feel like I got to know her a bit better as a result, and there are a few poems that really stood out to me.
This is the first time I’m hearing of Ananda Devi, and this is also the first time I’m reading a book by an author from Mauritius.
“That my tomorrow be a yesterday
Since nothing is left to accomplish
Nothing to build or to destroy
Nothing has already become: Never. “
As a whole this is a small book! Most of the poems are short, and the book also contains an interview with her. I liked the interview because I feel like I got to know her a bit better as a result, and there are a few poems that really stood out to me.
July 15, 2023
"When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven't suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little"
A short poetry collection translated by the French, touching on themes of loneliness and growth. My favorite poems were #13 and #25.
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven't suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little"
A short poetry collection translated by the French, touching on themes of loneliness and growth. My favorite poems were #13 and #25.
February 10, 2021
"When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with a blade
That slices
Into the places of certainty
That carves
Love into loneliness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is to tell me
The words that didn't know
How to cut into my hands
An infamy long unsaid
Sweet lines of madness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven't suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little
Neither lover nor enemy
It wants me to dance."
February's prompt for #ReadtheWorld21 (@end.notes and @anovelfamily) is East and Southern Africa. Ananda Devi is a Mauritian writer of South Indian descent. Her new poetry book translated from French by Kazim Ali is my first pick.
In a bilingual edition, this collection consists of a long verse section of thirty untitled and numbered poems followed by three shorter prose poems. She works in shadow spaces and in liminal places. Devi's words are quite sparse on the page, leaving a lot unsaid with subtlety and grace. A patient unraveling on many levels, questing both within & without leading to the permeation of understated ephemerality. In the first, also the most autobiographical, she questions what it means to be a woman, a mother, a wife. In the next, she ponders about the gravity of words, the ripple effects of their usage. In the third, she explores ideas of identity, the condition of the islands, and the illusions that change lives. The final poem looks at the politics of touch, the workings of desire on the canvas of skin. Overall, it's not the kind of poetry I read, or enjoy, a lot and I preferred the latter prose pieces much more but it definitely left a strong impression.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
It is with a blade
That slices
Into the places of certainty
That carves
Love into loneliness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is to tell me
The words that didn't know
How to cut into my hands
An infamy long unsaid
Sweet lines of madness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven't suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little
Neither lover nor enemy
It wants me to dance."
February's prompt for #ReadtheWorld21 (@end.notes and @anovelfamily) is East and Southern Africa. Ananda Devi is a Mauritian writer of South Indian descent. Her new poetry book translated from French by Kazim Ali is my first pick.
In a bilingual edition, this collection consists of a long verse section of thirty untitled and numbered poems followed by three shorter prose poems. She works in shadow spaces and in liminal places. Devi's words are quite sparse on the page, leaving a lot unsaid with subtlety and grace. A patient unraveling on many levels, questing both within & without leading to the permeation of understated ephemerality. In the first, also the most autobiographical, she questions what it means to be a woman, a mother, a wife. In the next, she ponders about the gravity of words, the ripple effects of their usage. In the third, she explores ideas of identity, the condition of the islands, and the illusions that change lives. The final poem looks at the politics of touch, the workings of desire on the canvas of skin. Overall, it's not the kind of poetry I read, or enjoy, a lot and I preferred the latter prose pieces much more but it definitely left a strong impression.
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
April 19, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers India for giving me access to this book before it was published.
This book was translated from French. I enjoyed some of the short poems but the longer prose did not translate well and was very choppy and too incongruous to draw a good picture/feeling from.
This book was translated from French. I enjoyed some of the short poems but the longer prose did not translate well and was very choppy and too incongruous to draw a good picture/feeling from.
Read
February 10, 2024What a mesmerizing book of poetry “When The Night Agrees To Speak To Me” by Ananda Devi is. I opened it with no expectation or knowledge of what it would be, and found a book of beauty, deep pain and superb use of language. Maybe I should have intuited it from the title which grasped my imagination immediately. The sole idea of the night “agreeing” to speak contains such aliveness, personifying the time of darkness and introducing the idea of consent in the relationship to the poet - maybe a hint to the feminist themes that are to emerge from the book.
The very first poem, structured cleanly in five stanzas of four lines each, guides the reader into a space of absences, where “nothing’s left” of people, “just the low sky, the river grasses, / wild water / abandoned beehives”. There, “your ears strain to hear / the voices of those absent / until the night at last / agrees to speak to you.” (/3). For if nothing is left of what was of a country colonized, at least the night, in its vastness, will stay with you. In a poem later in the collection, the night speaks “with a blade / that slices / into the places of certainty / that carves / love into loneliness” (/51) - the night becomes a sort of companion, “neither lover nor enemy”, but a mirror into life itself.
Not only the night is personified - later we find “brambles” waiting “to be fed by wounds” (/11). Absences keep re-emerging, “of the island there only remains / footsteps echoing of those long gone since” (/15, in French, “Que les pas des absents”). Pain sweeps slowly in, until the brink of suicide (“There came to me the desire / for pills delicate and white” /25) that is only kept at bay by love and the closeness of others (“You will feed me, you / My sometimes spouses, / When I no longer have the strength / To feed myself.” /25). And yet staying afloat isn’t easy (“The sum of moments comes to nothing / Survival feels useless: death is so overrated / There was nothing before and will be nothing after” /27).
The book continues with these rhythms until its second part, so to say, which consists of prose poems more overtly political, grounded in a post-colonial context. For example “Words Die a Slow Death” explores the ways in which words lose meaning in certain political discourses, while “Poetics of Islands” is a meditation on colonized islands, refusing the romanticization of the homeland and exploring the losses of resistance (“How can you not enter a state of rage like entering a state of grace” /72).
Devi is a Mauritian author of Telugu ancestry, something I found out only later and which helps get a better understanding of her texts. Reading the French original next to the English translation by Kazim Ali gave it even more depth, and I am glad to have been able to practice some of my French, remembering how words are pronounced and noticing the assonances and rhymes, some of which are reflected in the translation. The end note by the translator, the interview with the author and the critical text by Mohit Chandna add another layer to a book already filled with emotion and meaning.
“The bolts are broken / The door swings open / Forever impossible / The first step outside of myself.” /45
Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC.
The very first poem, structured cleanly in five stanzas of four lines each, guides the reader into a space of absences, where “nothing’s left” of people, “just the low sky, the river grasses, / wild water / abandoned beehives”. There, “your ears strain to hear / the voices of those absent / until the night at last / agrees to speak to you.” (/3). For if nothing is left of what was of a country colonized, at least the night, in its vastness, will stay with you. In a poem later in the collection, the night speaks “with a blade / that slices / into the places of certainty / that carves / love into loneliness” (/51) - the night becomes a sort of companion, “neither lover nor enemy”, but a mirror into life itself.
Not only the night is personified - later we find “brambles” waiting “to be fed by wounds” (/11). Absences keep re-emerging, “of the island there only remains / footsteps echoing of those long gone since” (/15, in French, “Que les pas des absents”). Pain sweeps slowly in, until the brink of suicide (“There came to me the desire / for pills delicate and white” /25) that is only kept at bay by love and the closeness of others (“You will feed me, you / My sometimes spouses, / When I no longer have the strength / To feed myself.” /25). And yet staying afloat isn’t easy (“The sum of moments comes to nothing / Survival feels useless: death is so overrated / There was nothing before and will be nothing after” /27).
The book continues with these rhythms until its second part, so to say, which consists of prose poems more overtly political, grounded in a post-colonial context. For example “Words Die a Slow Death” explores the ways in which words lose meaning in certain political discourses, while “Poetics of Islands” is a meditation on colonized islands, refusing the romanticization of the homeland and exploring the losses of resistance (“How can you not enter a state of rage like entering a state of grace” /72).
Devi is a Mauritian author of Telugu ancestry, something I found out only later and which helps get a better understanding of her texts. Reading the French original next to the English translation by Kazim Ali gave it even more depth, and I am glad to have been able to practice some of my French, remembering how words are pronounced and noticing the assonances and rhymes, some of which are reflected in the translation. The end note by the translator, the interview with the author and the critical text by Mohit Chandna add another layer to a book already filled with emotion and meaning.
“The bolts are broken / The door swings open / Forever impossible / The first step outside of myself.” /45
Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC.
May 25, 2022
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a digital copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
This book was originally written in lyrical French verses, by Ananda Devi, which was then translated by Kazim Ali, who was able to convert these verses to portray their deep meanings in English, representing tragic struggles and the struggles of feminization. This book is divided into mainly three sections: Poems - both French and their English translations, Prose - both French and their English translations, and excerpts from a heartfelt interview between the writer and translator.
Poems
As a French student myself, the poetry in this book captivated me in a variety of ways. The imagery and symbolism are inserted so well and the messages being represented are really important for the readers to appreciate, no matter the language. The French poems felt more lyrical at times, which was expected, but the English added elements of clarity that were necessary as well. Some of the poems were a bit short, but I still enjoyed them nonetheless.
Prose
This was my favorite section, personally. Both languages managed to portray heartfelt literature, and some of the sentences impacted me so much that I wanted to reread them over and over again (which I did). The personality that was etched into this section of the book emphasizes the touchy subjects being discussed.
Interviews
This added a much more personal feel to the work being portrayed to us, the readers. Being able to hear about the emotion and thought that went into, specifically, the understanding and translation of this book, made it feel truly more significant. While, at some times, this felt a bit jarring due to the sudden shift in language, it still felt very meaningful.
Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I thought it would, and it was a positive change of pace being able to read poems in both my languages. I look forward to reading more work by both of these lovely writers.
This book was originally written in lyrical French verses, by Ananda Devi, which was then translated by Kazim Ali, who was able to convert these verses to portray their deep meanings in English, representing tragic struggles and the struggles of feminization. This book is divided into mainly three sections: Poems - both French and their English translations, Prose - both French and their English translations, and excerpts from a heartfelt interview between the writer and translator.
Poems
As a French student myself, the poetry in this book captivated me in a variety of ways. The imagery and symbolism are inserted so well and the messages being represented are really important for the readers to appreciate, no matter the language. The French poems felt more lyrical at times, which was expected, but the English added elements of clarity that were necessary as well. Some of the poems were a bit short, but I still enjoyed them nonetheless.
Prose
This was my favorite section, personally. Both languages managed to portray heartfelt literature, and some of the sentences impacted me so much that I wanted to reread them over and over again (which I did). The personality that was etched into this section of the book emphasizes the touchy subjects being discussed.
Interviews
This added a much more personal feel to the work being portrayed to us, the readers. Being able to hear about the emotion and thought that went into, specifically, the understanding and translation of this book, made it feel truly more significant. While, at some times, this felt a bit jarring due to the sudden shift in language, it still felt very meaningful.
Overall, I enjoyed this book more than I thought it would, and it was a positive change of pace being able to read poems in both my languages. I look forward to reading more work by both of these lovely writers.
February 4, 2023
5 stars
This is a translated poetry from the French and I loved being able to read it in French as well as English. My French is very basic and I'm not good at it since I haven't taken a class in it since middle school and the people around me tend to speak Cajun French as opposed to French, but it was fascinating to see how much French I do know. At least while reading. Speaking...that's a whole different ballpark. I loved Ananda Devi's voice and the lyrical precision that each poem delivered. There was intense heartache and frustration. This is a collection I want to buy and re-explore with a deeper reading and annotation experience than the quick read I had on my phone. I was incredibly impressed with this collection and I left feeling entranced and this sense of wonderment, very similar to what the translator described. Highly recommend this one!
This is a translated poetry from the French and I loved being able to read it in French as well as English. My French is very basic and I'm not good at it since I haven't taken a class in it since middle school and the people around me tend to speak Cajun French as opposed to French, but it was fascinating to see how much French I do know. At least while reading. Speaking...that's a whole different ballpark. I loved Ananda Devi's voice and the lyrical precision that each poem delivered. There was intense heartache and frustration. This is a collection I want to buy and re-explore with a deeper reading and annotation experience than the quick read I had on my phone. I was incredibly impressed with this collection and I left feeling entranced and this sense of wonderment, very similar to what the translator described. Highly recommend this one!
July 7, 2023
Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers India for letting me read this book for free.
The poems in this collection are full of metaphors and language that I didn’t personally relate to all that much, and the poems didn’t really invoke feelings in me like other collections I have read. It wasn’t a bad collection by any means, just not my cup of tea most of the time. Of the 120 pages, there are poems on about 80, and about halfway it switches from short poems to longer paragraphs. Also, as I can only read the English translation, I only read every other page, so only about 40 in total. It’s a quick read for sure, and if you like your poetry more abstract, I’m sure you’d enjoy this book!
The poems in this collection are full of metaphors and language that I didn’t personally relate to all that much, and the poems didn’t really invoke feelings in me like other collections I have read. It wasn’t a bad collection by any means, just not my cup of tea most of the time. Of the 120 pages, there are poems on about 80, and about halfway it switches from short poems to longer paragraphs. Also, as I can only read the English translation, I only read every other page, so only about 40 in total. It’s a quick read for sure, and if you like your poetry more abstract, I’m sure you’d enjoy this book!
August 16, 2023
This collection of poems is provided in the original French and then the translated English, which I think would be helpful to someone who can read both languages. I know the translator worked closely with the author, but sometimes I have a harder time connecting to poetry that has been translated as I feel the intricacy can get lost.
These poems touch on a lot of dark concepts, but I liked the variety in length and tone within each poem. I particularly connected to 13 and Skin, the latter touching on the way our bodies are viewed based on what our skin “does.” Overall, I am glad to have read these poems but definitely recommend checking any trigger warnings before reading.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
These poems touch on a lot of dark concepts, but I liked the variety in length and tone within each poem. I particularly connected to 13 and Skin, the latter touching on the way our bodies are viewed based on what our skin “does.” Overall, I am glad to have read these poems but definitely recommend checking any trigger warnings before reading.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 29, 2022
I really liked the first half of the book! The poetry was so beautiful and so well written! Half of them are highlighted on my kindle and I really did love and appreciate this poets writing. I just wish there had been more of it!
If felt like after the halfway point the flow of the poems completely switched. Much longer and chunkier and it just turned into a Q&A with the poet!
Don't get me wrong I like that but not for half of a book!
Anyway, I did love how it had each poem in French then in English! And reading the Q&A I loved how that resonated with the poet and why she decided to do it!
If felt like after the halfway point the flow of the poems completely switched. Much longer and chunkier and it just turned into a Q&A with the poet!
Don't get me wrong I like that but not for half of a book!
Anyway, I did love how it had each poem in French then in English! And reading the Q&A I loved how that resonated with the poet and why she decided to do it!
May 14, 2022
As someone who is trying to get into French-English literary translation, this is a fascinating book as we get the poems in both French and English. The structure of the collection highlights the poet's complex relationship with the multiple languages she speaks.
The poems are written in a very simple and bare style, and yet it manages to invoke complex images. This collection illustrates that less is more.
The poems are written in a very simple and bare style, and yet it manages to invoke complex images. This collection illustrates that less is more.
January 18, 2023
I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This book of poetry is full of raw emotion and hard truths. I found myself on the verge of tears several times throughout the poetry section. I found the ebook to be formatted a strangely, but that might just be because it's a book meant to have the French and English translations side by side.
December 2, 2023
This was a beautifully written collection. I really enjoyed the poems. I also thought the language and emotional impact translated beautifully from French. I will be purchasing this for my shelves.
May 29, 2022
Thank you to NetGalley, Ananda Devi and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A beautiful collection of poetry, read in one sitting and would recommend.
A beautiful collection of poetry, read in one sitting and would recommend.
October 2, 2024
Your ears strain to hear
The voices of those absent
Until the night at last
Agrees to speak to you.
-- "When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me"
Nothing, so much as the grinding of skin against skin, allows one to hear better the laughter of death.
-- "Skin"
The voices of those absent
Until the night at last
Agrees to speak to you.
-- "When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me"
Nothing, so much as the grinding of skin against skin, allows one to hear better the laughter of death.
-- "Skin"
April 26, 2022
I love reading poetry, but I always find it difficult to review. It somehow feels like a more personal and intimate experience which ironically does not help me express my feelings the way I would want to.
•
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me was a delight to read, especially since it was a bilingual edition. I had never read any poetry by Devi before, so this was a great introduction to her work.
•
Devi touches on many subjects in her poems such as death and the passage of time. Her poems are short and fluid. The language flows and it is rife with beautiful imagery. The words were simply dancing in front of me. It was a magnificent experience that I would be happy to repeat.
•
25
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est à la lame
Qu’elle émince
Les lieux de certitude
Qu’elle mutile
Les aimés en solitude
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est pour me dire
Les mots qui n’ont pas su
Inciser dans mes mains
L’infamie longtemps tue
Belles racines de folie
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est me tournant le dos
Parce que nul arbre ne pousse
Sur le lisse de ma peau
Je n’ai pas bien souffert
Ni bien ri ni bien aimé
Le peu ne la contente pas
Ni amie ni ennemie
Elle voudrait que je danse.
25
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with a blade
That slices Into the places of certainty
That carves
Love into loneliness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is to tell me
The words that didn’t know
How to cut into my hands
An infamy long unsaid
Sweet lines of madness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven’t suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little
Neither lover nor enemy
It wants me to dance.
•
•
When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me was a delight to read, especially since it was a bilingual edition. I had never read any poetry by Devi before, so this was a great introduction to her work.
•
Devi touches on many subjects in her poems such as death and the passage of time. Her poems are short and fluid. The language flows and it is rife with beautiful imagery. The words were simply dancing in front of me. It was a magnificent experience that I would be happy to repeat.
•
25
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est à la lame
Qu’elle émince
Les lieux de certitude
Qu’elle mutile
Les aimés en solitude
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est pour me dire
Les mots qui n’ont pas su
Inciser dans mes mains
L’infamie longtemps tue
Belles racines de folie
Quand la nuit consent à me parler
C’est me tournant le dos
Parce que nul arbre ne pousse
Sur le lisse de ma peau
Je n’ai pas bien souffert
Ni bien ri ni bien aimé
Le peu ne la contente pas
Ni amie ni ennemie
Elle voudrait que je danse.
25
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with a blade
That slices Into the places of certainty
That carves
Love into loneliness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is to tell me
The words that didn’t know
How to cut into my hands
An infamy long unsaid
Sweet lines of madness
When the night agrees to speak to me
It is with its back turned
Because neither tree nor sapling
Grows from my smooth skin
I haven’t suffered enough
Nor laughed well nor loved enough
It will not be content with just a little
Neither lover nor enemy
It wants me to dance.
•
April 7, 2024
oh my god. i loved everything about this. i loved how the original french that the poetry was written in was kept in the book, then the translations were on the next page. i loved the writing and the prose. some of the lines were so good i just had to highlight them and come back to them! also, i loved the interview. the first answer to the question made me feel so many things. i love devi’s style of writing and speaking and ali’s way of translating these poems <3
thank you netgalley for a free copy.
thank you netgalley for a free copy.
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