But It’s A Long Way by Frédérique Guétat-Liviani and translated by Nathanaël

This is poetry from France.

But It’s A Long Way by Frédérique Guétat-Liviani translated by Nathanaël is published by Nightboat Books. This is a Book originally written in French. This was published in 2018.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781937658816E12.

But It’s a Long Way, by Frédérique Guétat-Liviani and translated by Nathanaël, has a title that sounds like a reply already weary of arrival. The phrase is conversational, almost tossed off, but it carries distance, delay, and perhaps resignation. As a French work in translation from Nightboat, the book likely belongs to a contemporary experimental field where lyric thought moves by fragments, interruptions, and intimate turns. Nathanaël’s translation suggests attention to difficulty as a living texture rather than a problem to remove. I would read this book for its sense of transit: not the triumphant journey, but the long way itself, the detours and hesitations that become the poem’s actual dwelling.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.