In Search of a Face

(Paperback, Bilingual edition)

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In Search of a Face rewrites Homer's ancient myth through a dialogue between Ulysses and an unnamed She.

Originally written in French and Occitan, this narrative poem unfolds at a time that precedes Homer's tale. Explaining why She has no name, Aurlia Lassaque tells us "her name is unknown, for her story has been subsumed in his story and the rewritings of history". But although 'She' has no name, Aurlia gives her a voice in Occitan, through which we re-encounter perennial themes of love and abandonment, war and separation, and the loss of identity they engender. An echo of formal Greek poesis, at a time before drama, song and poetry were separated, this text was conceived as much for the stage as for the page. It comprises eight Cantos with prose poems in Occitan, while a third voice adopts in French the role of the chorus in ancient classical drama.

While Ulysses roams the seas, 'She' roams the territory of her memory, grapples with its impostor nostalgia, is driven to the brink of madness by the relentless materiality of absence, age and regret. Time is stretched by waiting in perpetuum for her lover's return in the rarefied echo chamber of Elle/Ela's memory, while elements of space are sparsely sketched out, as in a dream.

This poignant rewrite of an archetypal story, at once highly intimate and universal in its reach, explores the toll that war and separation take on those who leave and those who are left behind: "Give me a name, Ulysses/give me a name so that I can wait for you."

Reviews

"Aurlia Lassaque's wonderfully spare and potent stanzas prove to be the perfect form for a feminist imagining of an eternal moment stretching from before the time of The Odyssey into the future, into infinity. Like Emily Wilson's recent translation of Homer's great epic, the poems of In Search of a Face create space for a woman, for a woman's experiences of love and of longing, thereby creating space in ancient history and myth for all women. Here, through the voice of this unnamed woman ('She'), the voice of Ulysses, and a choral voice, we learn truths about the intimate, human costs of war. As dramatic as it is poetic, In Search of a Face is a necessary book for our present historical moment." --Gail Wronsky"She writes in two languages, but speaks with one voice, so much so that her poetry is meant to be said, sung and danced. Aurlia Lassaque, is a young woman whose day of writing began thousands of years ago. In Mexico, Brazil, in the vast Amerindian world, Aurlia Lassaque would be something of a shaman; her readers would read her as they gather wild plants to heal themselves or keep away from curses. As a woman faithful to the happy rumors of her childhood, Lassaque invites us to pagan festivals, primitive rounds, rural phantasmagorias where two stories are always intertwined, one ancient, the other contemporary."--Bruno Doucey

Author Bio

Aurlia Lassaque (b. 1983) is a bilingual poet who composes in French and Occitan, the language of the medieval troubadours. She is a leading contemporary voice in Occitan and her work had been translated into a dozen languages. She is the author of several collections including: Dawn of Wolves, Solstice, the Call of Janus and For the Salamanders to Sing. A previous book of her work in English, Solstice and Other Poems was published in 2012. She lives in the village of Autoire in the south of France.