Poem - When? Poetess - Latifa Harbaoui (Algeria)

When?

Latifa Harbaoui

The contrived dissolution,

the encircling of meaning around a poet’s corpse,

the text that shaped the hunch of the text,

the bendings amid a long prayer,

a long one stretching across the orbit of language.

The longed-for earth,

the abyss,

the void,

treacherous days,

lament,

wandering,

the obscure,

the weak, the weak human,

the lonely, solitary moon,

and your grave, which you now inhabit…

When?

Prey to a question—

decayed, decomposing in absence.

How I wish

you would answer me about when.

When will you return?

When shall we meet?

And when shall we all forgive one another?

The beautiful ones,

the beautiful ones,

the beautiful ones—

on the expired hour of the body / of the senses,

down below, they turn over their new features,

slipping their withered names into the pocket of the earth.

Thanks be to God…

Thanks be to God, for they do not see

the large flowers piled upon their graves.

The separating “when”

is all that remains

of the debris of questions.

When was the poet born?

When did the poet die?

©® Latifa Harbaoui

About the Poetess:

 Latifa Harbaoui an Algerian writer and poet, a graduate in Philosophy from the University of Bouzaréah (1995).Her work spans journalism, with daily columns in major Algerian newspapers, as well as children’s songs and plays. She founded the Chédou Algérie children’s troupe in Biskra (1995) and have created and hosted several radio programs.

Her poetry collections include Sun on My Measure, Scraps of Anxiety, and Close to the Front, a Kick, the latter awarded the Dar Moton Prize for Creativity (2023). Her children’s story collection, My Golden Steps in Smart Reading, was published under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture (2025). She has contributed to collective works such as Arab Women’s Letters and Algerian Lanterns.

She has received the First of November Medal from the Algerian President (2014), an honorary doctorate from the Middle East Organizations Union, and was named one of the 100 most influential personalities (2018–2020). In 2025, she was honoured by Barcelona Magazine for outstanding literary production. She used to be the Head of the Poetry House (Biskra branch) and a member of the Arab Writers League. Her work is the subject of academic studies across Algerian universities.