Published in Issue 62.3: Summer 2023
I’m rooted in movement
I’m rooted in movement
I’m rooted in movement
I’m rooted in movement
this phenomenon is improbable
it’s improbable
I’m rooted in resonance
I’m rooted in transparency
branches glide over me
I’m rooted in resonance
I scrutinize all that’s being whispered
on my neck
I’m rooted in transparency
I exert the highest tension
I tremble
I’m rooted in movement
have I ever known
how to be rooted in movement?
I’m rooted in transparency
what’s revealed in me
is revealed in us
I’ve been rooted in movement
for so long
that I’m rooted in movement
I’m rooted in resonance
what passes through me
mirrors what’s coming
I’m rooted in movement
when the round opens
I’m rooted in movement
when the triangle opens
I’m rooted in movement
when the line closes
I’m rooted in movement
when your eyes release me
I’m rooted in movement
when you make me wait
I’m rooted in movement
when it topples
I’m rooted in movement
when you catch a cold
I’m rooted in movement
when your fingers brush against me
I’m rooted in movement
when your voice falls silent
I’m rooted in movement
when your curve bends
I’m rooted in movement.
Translated from the French by
Nancy Naomi Carlson
Critically acclaimed Samira Negrouche was born in Algiers where she continues to live and work. Author of seven poetry collections and several artist’s books, she is a poet and translator. Involved in various multidisciplinary projects, her recent collaborations include Quai 2I1 with violinist Marianne Piketty and theorbist Bruno Helstroffer. In 2021, Marilyn Hacker’s translation of Negrouche’s The Olive Trees’ Jazz & Other Poems was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry and shortlisted for the National Translation Award in Poetry. Her poems have been translated into over twenty languages.