Beyond Elsewhere
AUTHOR
Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac
TRANSLATOR
Hélène Cardona
A hauntingly beautiful long narrative poem that explores the universal and uniquely personal through lyrical, masterful prose (ThriftBooks). This symphonic work traces a young man's spiritual journey from innocence through passion and despair to profound spiritual understanding (AbeBooks), blending Eastern and Western wisdom in its quest for the divine. The poem journeys beyond space and time as a wide-open window into the invisible, seeking infinite love and transcendence (Biblio). Winner of a Hemingway Grant, this bilingual edition features an acclaimed translation by Hélène Cardona that captures the visionary intensity and mystical resonance of Arnou-Laujeac's innovative voice in contemporary French poetry.
Reviews
"This incandescent metonym of light is, writ small, a marriage of eastern and western wisdoms--a bildungsroman describing the arc of a young man's journey from innocence, through passion and despair, to the great clarity of spiritual understanding. Arnou-Laujeac's intensely visual account, clothed in lyrical image and visionary flame, in Cardona's transcendent translation, easily carries us along in his brightly burning chariot in quest of the Divine."
—Sidney Wade
"Beyond Elsewhere defies definition, hovering in that physical space somewhere above us, just beyond reach, but visible in a breathless lyrical cloud. Arnou-Laujeac's poems are psychotropic--a beautiful new voice in poetry."
—Victoria Chang
Hélène Cardona’s books include Life in Suspension and Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry) and the translations The Abduction (Maram Al-Masri, White Pine Press), Birnam Wood (José Manuel Cardona, Salmon Poetry), Beyond Elsewhere (Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac, White Pine Press), Ce que nous portons (Dorianne Laux, Éditions du Cygne), and Walt Whitman’s Civil War Writings for WhitmanWeb. The recipient of over 20 honors & awards, including the Independent Press Award, International Book Award and Hemingway Grant, she holds an MA in American Literature from the Sorbonne, worked as a translator for the Canadian Embassy, and taught at Hamilton College and LMU.
Gabriel Arnou-Laujeac is the author of the acclaimed Beyond Elsewhere (Éditions du Cygne, 2013). He has been published in numerous anthologies of short stories and poetry, including Petite anthologie de la jeune poésie française (Éditions Géhess, 2009), Le livre de la prière (Éditions de l’Inférieur, 2013), and literary and philosophical journals, notably Les Citadelles, Poésie Directe, Littérales, Polyglotte, Recours au Poème, Testament, 3è Millénaire and L’Opinion indépendante. He contributed to the book Irak, la faute, with Alain Michel and Fabien Voyer (Éditions du Cerf, 2000). He graduated from Sciences Po and holds a Master’s degree (Fondements des Droits de l’Homme). He also studied philosophy and Eastern poetry.