Two new translations by Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi enhance the presence of Palestinian poetry in the French language. In his latest publications in the language for which he won the prestigious “Goncourt” prize, Laabi translated the Palestinian poets Joumana Mustafa’s collection “Claws” and Ghassan Zaqtan’s “The Barbarians, Mine”.

Abdellatif Laabi, who has compiled three anthologies of Palestinian poetry over the decades and was the first to translate the prominent Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish into French, published the two new translated collections side by side with the original Arabic texts and their French renditions.

This follows months after Laabi, together with poet and media figure Yassin Adnan, published Arabic anthologies translated by Laabi into French, featuring poetry from Gaza Palestinians titled “Gaza… Is There Life Before Death?” which includes 26 poets.

In 2024, Laabi added to French-language libraries anthologies of poetry by Palestinian poet and cultural journalist Najwan Darwish, under the title “You Are Not a Poet in Granada,” and earlier published young Palestinian poetry in bilingual Arabic-French editions.

These collections were showcased alongside the “Paris Poetry Market,” France’s premier poetry event, where Palestinian poetry was the guest of honor in its 2025 edition.

Laabi defended this hosting after the guest of honor status was withdrawn from “Palestinian poetry,” a decision he exposed and which sparked widespread solidarity, leading organizers to reverse the decision. The original decision was scheduled before October 7, 2023, and the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

After protesting in writing against the withdrawal decision, which he described as “politically biased” and “morally unacceptable,” and calling for “greater insight and courage,” Laabi, who knows Palestinian poets well, said they are “more humane than you and me, their voices are indispensable.” He later celebrated “this return to reason and respect for the pledge” by one of the “precious events” that allowed poetry “for decades to be honored in a political and cultural climate that tended to marginalize it.”

Translator of the anthology “Moroccan Poetry from Independence to Today” into French, Laabi previously translated collections by Palestinian Samih al-Qasim, Moroccans Abdellah Zrika and Mohammed Bennis, Lebanese Hassan Hamdan (known as Mahdi Amel), Iraqi Saadi Youssef, Syrian Mohammad al-Maghout, and Bahraini Qassim Haddad. Alongside his lifelong partner, novelist Jocelyne Laabi, he translated “Returning to Haifa,” a renowned literary work by Ghassan Kanafani, the prominent Palestinian writer, journalist, and politician assassinated by Israel in 1972.

After being awarded the “Mahmoud Darwish Prize for Culture and Creativity” in 2020, Laabi said its value “surpasses all the awards and honors I have received so far.”

Hespress previously reported the former political prisoner and founder of one of Morocco’s leading cultural magazines “Anfas” clings to “pessimism” (a term by Emile Habibi between pessimism and optimism), stating that what a poet can do is “accompany the state of the world and its conditions, and the conditions of the human situation.” He added: “The poet is a companion, holding your hand, trying to convey friendship, trust, and hope to you, asking questions, suffering, with moments of happiness and hope.”

Among what Laabi translated into French is a poem by Palestinian poet Hind Jouda, written from Gaza under Israeli bombardment:

What does it mean to be a poet in wartime?

Long cracks in the sides of the streets,

To pale children before and after death,

What does it mean to be safe in wartime?

And the coincidence that you are still alive!

My God,

I do not want to be a poet in wartime.