Jean Amrouche

Jean Amrouche Poems

Jean Amrouche Biography

Jean-Elmouhoub Amrouche (7 February 1906 in Ighil Ali, Algeria - 16 April 1962 in Paris, France) was an Algerian francophone writer, poet and journalist. Born to a Catholic family in Algeria, his parents were Kabyles who converted to Christianity. Amrouche emigrated with his family to Tunisia while still young. He later moved to Paris for studies. His name Jean was given to him by White Fathers, among whom he rose. Through his career he tried to describe the Algeria and its struggle to the rest of the world. He was a friend to Charles de Gaulle, and acted several times as an intermediate between him and the GPRA. He was for the independence of Algeria, but wasn't part of the FLN. When he was a high school teacher in Tunis, Albert Memmi was one of his students. Jean Amrouche is considered an important piece in the development of francophone literature in Algeria. He was the older brother of fellow writer Taos Amrouche. Both were the children of Marguerite Fadhma Ath Mansour, author of History of my life.)

The Best Poem Of Jean Amrouche

Adoration Of The Palm Trees

At night the palm trees shed heavy tears.
Their shadows bend over the sea
Nearly soundless Like the scattered souls that weep
In the serene immobility of the stars.
Palm trees,
For whom the tremor of your lowered hands
And your mute sob in night's vertigo?
Palm trees, For whom the call of the distant seas,
The warm perfumes,
The anguish,
That rest in the gold of your half-open hearts?
For the cold kiss of the moon?
Will he come, the naked Child, with the enormous eye,
To spread his desire over all your silences,
And in the nameless sky
Will unhoped-for love be born,
And then shoot up into the fullness of the stars?
Oh palm trees,
The shivering coat of your blue'd hair
And the shadow of your swaying bodies
Each day have sung the delirious suns of these dazzled shores.
The hour when the big sleep
Will bend our heavy nakednesses toward earth
Has rung, far away, on the dream's high plain.
On our forehead we carry the somber diadem
And our hearts made heavy with the impossible love
Adore throughout the night and the music of the stars
The wound that your friends the leaves put to sleep,
And the endless sob of your fallen branches.

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