Book Review of The Immigrant's Lament
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Immigrant's Lament" by Mois benarroch.]
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A Review of Mois Benarroch’s The Immigrant’s Lament by Madamidola Oladele
Mois Benarroch is a Moroccan-born Israeli poet who has quite a number of creative publications to his credit. The Immigrant’s Lament by Mois Benarroch is a collection of poems first published in Hebrew in 1994 with the English translation originally published in 2007. The collection which mirrors the trials and triumphs of an immigrant eager to tell his stories and share his experiences is made up of 77 poems stylistically divided into three parts. The first part contains the laments of the Immigrant; the second contains some love songs while the last part is a summation of the entire immigrant’s journey.
The first part which is basically the poet persona’s lament about the life of uncertainty lived by an immigrant; a live of struggles for identity and multiple rejection, a life that makes the persona’s subjects hybrids caught between two worlds – not given a deserved recognition at home and rejected abroad. The first 25 poems are therefore dedicated to decrying the plights of the immigrant narrator which seems ‘hereditary’ as it is passed down from one generation of the poet persona’s family to another. In this regard, the poet appears to problematize the concept of home. The very first poem in the collection “In Morocco I was the center” points the reader’s attention to the ironical twist woven around the idea of home. The poet seems to miss life in Morocco where he was well recognised and felt belonged as against his native land where he “ended up in a corner”. However, despite the hostility of the people at home, the status of the persona as a poet is aided by the natural state of things at home. In “I had everything in Morocco” the poet laments: I had everything in Morocco/except what I needed/air to breathe time to think/time to create/to be myself/to be a child/and dream. The poem “The last words of the immigrant” explains the complexities that envelop the poet’s life: the more I explain/the less I understand.
Beaten by the complexities of being an immigrant, the poet turns to love as a natural therapy to heal his bleeding heart. Therefore, a total of 51 poems are dedicated to issues of love and life outside the immigrant’s experience. Many of the poems explain the inconsistencies of love affairs, the beauty of nature and the poet’s love for poetry which sees him immortalise poetry in what could be technically called “Meta-poetry”. This part of the collection is sensual and erratic as words fall on the pages like the brush splashing paint on the canvas to create a sort of chaotic beauty. The poems “Your breast”, “A secret kiss” and many others give such pleasurable satisfaction to reader’s mind. More so, to unravel the meta-poetic nature of the collection, one could turn to “My poems” and “Strip Poetry”.
The final part of the collection is titled “SELF PORTRAIT OF A POET IN A FAMILY MIRROR”. The capitalization of the title gives it the outlook of a poem that could stand on its own outside of the collection. The long narrative poem reveals and affirms that the entire collection is autobiographical as the poems mirror the life and times of the poet as well as that of his family and friends.
The collection as a whole can be tagged autobiographical because of the narrative technique employed and the involvement of the poet who doubles as the narrator. More so, the personal tone which necessitates the using of personal pronouns such as “I” and possessive pronouns such as “My”, classifies the collection. The rhetorical and repetitive devices deployed in the collection enhance the thematic preoccupation of the collection just as the use of enjambment stylistically connotes the unending lament of the immigrant.
“I rate the collection 3 out of 4 stars. I would have rated it 4 out of 4 but for the printing errors here and there and the boredom of the laments especially as experienced in the last poem of the collection. Over all, the collection is a delight to read and engage as some of the experiences of the poet are universally shared human experiences which the reader can easily identify with.
******
The Immigrant's Lament
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
Share This Review
Mois Benarroch is a Moroccan-born Israeli poet who has quite a number of creative publications to his credit. The Immigrant’s Lament by Mois Benarroch is a collection of poems first published in Hebrew in 1994 with the English translation originally published in 2007. The collection which mirrors the trials and triumphs of an immigrant eager to tell his stories and share his experiences is made up of 77 poems stylistically divided into three parts. The first part contains the laments of the Immigrant; the second contains some love songs while the last part is a summation of the entire immigrant’s journey.
The first part which is basically the poet persona’s lament about the life of uncertainty lived by an immigrant; a live of struggles for identity and multiple rejection, a life that makes the persona’s subjects hybrids caught between two worlds – not given a deserved recognition at home and rejected abroad. The first 25 poems are therefore dedicated to decrying the plights of the immigrant narrator which seems ‘hereditary’ as it is passed down from one generation of the poet persona’s family to another. In this regard, the poet appears to problematize the concept of home. The very first poem in the collection “In Morocco I was the center” points the reader’s attention to the ironical twist woven around the idea of home. The poet seems to miss life in Morocco where he was well recognised and felt belonged as against his native land where he “ended up in a corner”. However, despite the hostility of the people at home, the status of the persona as a poet is aided by the natural state of things at home. In “I had everything in Morocco” the poet laments: I had everything in Morocco/except what I needed/air to breathe time to think/time to create/to be myself/to be a child/and dream. The poem “The last words of the immigrant” explains the complexities that envelop the poet’s life: the more I explain/the less I understand.
Beaten by the complexities of being an immigrant, the poet turns to love as a natural therapy to heal his bleeding heart. Therefore, a total of 51 poems are dedicated to issues of love and life outside the immigrant’s experience. Many of the poems explain the inconsistencies of love affairs, the beauty of nature and the poet’s love for poetry which sees him immortalise poetry in what could be technically called “Meta-poetry”. This part of the collection is sensual and erratic as words fall on the pages like the brush splashing paint on the canvas to create a sort of chaotic beauty. The poems “Your breast”, “A secret kiss” and many others give such pleasurable satisfaction to reader’s mind. More so, to unravel the meta-poetic nature of the collection, one could turn to “My poems” and “Strip Poetry”.
The final part of the collection is titled “SELF PORTRAIT OF A POET IN A FAMILY MIRROR”. The capitalization of the title gives it the outlook of a poem that could stand on its own outside of the collection. The long narrative poem reveals and affirms that the entire collection is autobiographical as the poems mirror the life and times of the poet as well as that of his family and friends.
The collection as a whole can be tagged autobiographical because of the narrative technique employed and the involvement of the poet who doubles as the narrator. More so, the personal tone which necessitates the using of personal pronouns such as “I” and possessive pronouns such as “My”, classifies the collection. The rhetorical and repetitive devices deployed in the collection enhance the thematic preoccupation of the collection just as the use of enjambment stylistically connotes the unending lament of the immigrant.
“I rate the collection 3 out of 4 stars. I would have rated it 4 out of 4 but for the printing errors here and there and the boredom of the laments especially as experienced in the last poem of the collection. Over all, the collection is a delight to read and engage as some of the experiences of the poet are universally shared human experiences which the reader can easily identify with.
******
The Immigrant's Lament
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes
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