Olivia Elias

Jan 20, 2025 | arablit.org | Olivia Elias

Palestine, Poetry Jérémy Victor Robert, Olivia Elias December 31, 2024, by Olivia Elias, translated from French by Jérémy Victor Robert * in these barbaric times….I live like a sick person forced to save her energies consumed by grief….a grief too big to fit into a “normal” life….in a land where Death doesn’t triumph on all screens by lighting up giant phosphoric fireworks & piling up corpses….during this period of the year when tidy & nicely dressed kids are unwrapping gifts adorned with...

Jul 9, 2024 | arablit.org | Olivia Elias

Poetry Jérémy Victor Robert, Olivia Elias, Poetry By Olivia Eliastranslated by Jérémy Victor RobertA poet of the Palestinian diaspora, Olivia Elias writes in French.

Apr 17, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Nasser Rabah |Souad Labbize |Olivia Elias |Alexander Aguayo

Palestinian writer Nasser Rabah pens a poem of longing, retreat, and stolen dreams. They leave without turning the moon of longing off behind them,without shutting the door overlooking the dew of the steps they’d taken,they don’t drink water to know how to return to water, they headtowards an evening leaning its face against the hand of absence, lucidabout the business of leaving, and overcome by tears. They arestatues of flesh and blood, frowning, smiling . . .

Mar 19, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Olivia Elias |Lena Khalaf Tuffaha |Nadya Siyam |Hiba Abu Nada

time has swallowed time night has swallowed day past future merged in a present of terror the boa constrictor encircling our lives has squeezed squeezed building after building hospital after hospital bookshop after bookshop body after body methodically & blindly demolish kill as widely as possible let the distressed birds fly away not wanting to know anything of this human world somewhere a little girl cries cries & asks if we collected all the tears would it wash away the soot resurrect the...

Jan 23, 2024 | wordswithoutborders.org | Omar Ziyadeh |Olivia Elias |Nasser Rabah |Alexander Aguayo

In this excerpt from a longer poem of the same name, Omar Ziyadeh writes a searing elegy of these times from Palestine. Omar Ziyadeh reads from "Nobody Can Identify Their Own Remains" in the original Arabic (1)Sitting in front of the screen, my thoughts resemble a bombed hospital. Someone is digging,they dig inside of me endlessly for the last grave. Where is the ultimate resting place, the last grave of all happenings?