in the head… Back Kaddish for lovethe author of ItDecision signs his first collection of poems, where a woman prays for the return of her beloved. Shocking book.
“I drank your words / The black milk / the imagination of abandonment / Your bitter love / I write your name.” When she composed these verses, Karine Tuil undoubtedly had “The Black Milk of the Dawn” in mind. escaping death, by Paul Celan, as “I write your name”, by Paul Eluard. He is said to have turned the love poem into a poem of Resistance, replacing the last word, “Almond,” his muse’s first name, with “Freedom.” Interweaving references as she interweaves the Roman alphabet and Hebrew letters, Karine Tuile abandons the novel and the decoding of society for the timelessness and lyricism of poetry. Kaddish for love. She counters Eluar’s offer by performing the kaddish, a mourning prayer that sanctifies the divine name, a woman’s appeal to a beloved and lost man.
Miss Figaro. – How did you write this book of poetry?
Karine Tuil. – I started out writing poetry before turning to novels. I always read. After twelve novels, I had to return to the source, my material – the word, in its purest form – the essential. Poetry avoids all messages. It is this step aside, this parallel path, this opening to the sensitive world.
Why Kaddish?
In Judaism, the Kaddish is one of the mourning prayers said at funerals, but also several times a day. I thought there was no prayer for the end of love when it is one of the most difficult experiences in life. So I imagined a woman’s kind of charm for the man she loves and from whom she is separated.
There is no prayer for the end of love when it is one of life’s most difficult experiences
Karine Tuile
Hebrew letters punctuate the book, linking different poems. Have you wanted to get in touch with your cultural roots?
I grew up in a secular assimilated Jewish family. I didn’t discover the intellectual and cultural side of Judaism until quite late, and it was a revelation because there was such a connection with the text and its interpretation. I wrote my poems with this Edmond Jabes sentence in mind: To the question “Who am I?” Shall I answer “writer?” A writer and a Jew, I was led to clarify. but to show less of my Judaism than to depart from it, that I may more easily slip through this breach.’ But it’s a kaddish for love, we’re going from divine love to profane love… There was this game about the deification and sanctification of the beloved. When we love, the other is everything to us. It somehow has the power of life and death, because rupture can be seen as destruction. I wanted to describe the fragility of love. This book is both a declaration of love, a lament for its loss, and a universal prayer for the return of a loved one.
“I will not mourn our love / I will carry it / For a long time / I will carry it / Like a child that will not be born.” Have you thought? Kaddish for the unborn childBy Imre Kertes?
Yes, I thought about that. Kaddish for love So structured with hidden references for the reader to discover… I wanted to invent a mystique specific to the book.
Source: Le Figaro
