Les Éventails, Portraits of Passion

By Nathalie Handal b. 1969 Nathalie Handal

The shadows of birds fading on a fighter’s back

The undressing of words on an unstamped postcard

The wet swings in the distant park

The jealousy of raindrops on the umbrella of lovers

The laughter of a boy before a bird

The song of two flutes, two swords, two bracelets, two fingers

The stare of a wave before a pearl

The yearning between the legs of a farmer’s wife

The opening of doors closing midday

The sudden howling of our muse—and

les éventails—disturbing the guest inside of us

Nathalie Handal, “Les Éventails, Portraits of Passion” from Love and Strange Horses. Copyright © 2010 by Nathalie Handal. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.

Source: Love and Strange Horses (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)

Biography

Playwright, translator, and editor Nathalie Handal is of Palestinian heritage. She has lived in Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. Handal attended Simmons College in Boston as an undergraduate and earned an MFA in poetry from Bennington College, an MPhil in drama and English from the University of London, and a postgraduate certificate in fiction from Humber College in Canada. She is the author of the . . .

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