Stray Truths by Euphrase Kezilahabi and translated by Annmarie Drury

This is poetry from Tanzania.

Stray Truths by Euphrase Kezilahabi translated by Annmarie Drury is published by Michigan State University Press. This is a Book originally written in Swahili. This was published in 2015.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781611861822E12.

Stray Truths, by Euphrase Kezilahabi, is a Swahili poetry collection from Tanzania, translated by Annmarie Drury, published by Michigan State University Press in 2015. It is a Swahili collection from Tanzania where philosophical inquiry, social thought, and lyric fragment move beside each other. Kezilahabi’s poems matter because they let truth feel unsettled and wandering, less a doctrine than a set of encounters the reader must keep following. I would not approach it as a book that needs to be solved before it can be felt. Start with the pressure of the title, the texture of the translated line, and the feeling of a voice making room for itself in English. For this library, the book matters as more than a record of Tanzania; it is an invitation to let poetry remain particular, difficult, and alive without asking it to behave like explanation.

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.