When was the last time when you read poems or lyrical prose that deeply touched your heart? A woman carries a thousand emotions inside her and when she unleash them, it gives the glimpse of her life with some settling and some unsettling feelings deep embedded in stillness of her soul, inevitable silence and feeling of emptiness within. The poems are simple yet effective. They are not for any particular gender but everyone can read them and dwell in them forever.

The prose are deep and evocative. Reading them felt like author has shared nothing but mysteries embedded in her soul, love that turned into loneliness, night that agrees to speak to her, the inevitable life and it’s secrets, prolonged memories, and entering into the web of reality and experiencing life to its core, relationships and unsettling feelings that dies slowly but leaves a huge mark on soul. And seeing the world from a feminine aspect. And eventually with time, all the memories fade away and we are left with the after effects of life and how it shapes us. The author has crafted such an evocative poems that you will find yourself engulfed in them and when you will touch the brink of reality, your world will be completely changed.

The poems has been translated from French to English by Kazim Ali. I must say the translator did an amazing job. The author has said the poignant truth so profoundly. If I will describe author’s soul in three words; it would be Darkness, pain and beauty crafted in a poetry in such an evocative way.

Thank you Netgalley, Harper Collins Publishers and Harper Perennial

This book made my soul suffer and enjoy the mundane and cruel things at the same time. It was my first time reading something of a Mauritian author and it was a hell of a good experience! Truly a good way to start my journey into this culture's poetry. Full of terror and things that others writers wouldn't write about, it was something else.

Dual language editions automatically rise higher on my shelf as looking from the original to the translated brings me joy even when I am unfamiliar with one of the languages.

I have to admit unfamiliarity with modern French poets, but if t some of them have a similar air of melodrama I may need to push them higher up my list of interests. Dancing with the devil, oblivion, moon-wild beauty, how over rated death is - Devi lets you roll in the drama. Some of the metaphors in the poems are common but manages to be brushed off and given new perspective. Writing a poem about glass hearts that doesn’t feel overwrought beyond the bounds of reality deserves some praise.

Many thanks to NetGalley for a review copy of this title.

This edition of Ananda Devi's. Quand la nuit consent à me parler, translated by Kazim Ali (of Norther Light: Power, Land, and the Memory of Water fame) is well-translated, but unusually formatted. I always appreciate when translated poetry includes both the original and the translation. Normally, such books are published with the text in one language and then the other on opposite or alternating pages. But in this, the sections appear one after the other, on the same page. And while this still works with the numbered sections, once we hit the blocks of text, especially Poétique des îles/Poetics of Islands, 33% of the through, both languages blur into one another. That blurring encourages the reader to continue straight though, which feels repetitive for a bilingual reader, and will be confusing for non-French speakers looking to exclusively read the English.

I should note that I read an eARC from NetGalley, so it's entirely possible that this is a formatting issue that won't be present in the final version.

The formatting of the poetry aside, the final half of the book, is fantastic. That section consists of notes from Ali followed by an interview with Devi, in which the pair discussion everything from language to post-colonial literature. The book is well worth picking up just for that!

This book was hard for me to rate. I struggled with the poetry section, not because of the writing itself, but because of the ebook layout. It's possible that this will be different for people outside of Netgalley, but I'm not really clear how this is supposed to work in an ebook format. The original French would be, in hardcopy, set opposite the English translation on the page. In the format I read, it was kind of smashed together in a confusing way. The poetry itself only makes up about half of the book, and that is with 50% of THOSE pages being the original French.

So if that was all I was going on, I would have given the book three stars. HOWEVER... the real treasure of this book is the interview between the poet and the translator. There is so much information about the context, the language choices, little bits about individual lines and where they came from. It is FASCINATING.

tl;dr: if you're going to grab a copy of this book, I'd recommend the print version. I suspect that I would have been a lot less lost if I'd gotten to experience the book with proper formatting. I received a copy of the ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have such a deep respect for translators and the work that they do, bringing the spirit of a piece seamlessly from its original iteration to a new understand. With that said, after reading this book and the interview between Kazim Ali and Ananda Devi, as well as Ali's translator notes within the text, I truly wish my understanding of French was stronger so that I could experience these poems as Devi wrote them. Ali speaks of Devi's complex simplicity in the original French poems, and while I do feel that captured that essence in his translations, I'd love to one day be able to experience the book as he did on his first read.

Overall, this is a nice translation of some really beautiful, thoughtful, poignant poems. The inclusion of the translator's notes and his interview with the poet deepen the connection between the two on the page and bring even more depth to the book as a whole. I genuinely enjoyed it and definitely see myself revisiting these poems in the future.

These poems were good and also took my time some mind to internalize them, all in good ways. but this, like other poetry should not be binged.

This is a translated poetry book, from French.

I didn’t quite understand the first few poems and so didn’t enjoy them. Toward the middle of the book, I found a couple of poems I liked. I also enjoyed testing my knowledge of the French language by the reading the original poetry.

All in all, it was okay. I am probably not the targeted audience.

It dealt with themes of colonialism, language and womanhood.

This collection fell flat for me. I was initially really excited to read this but quickly discovered it just wasn't for me. I do appreciate that they gave the original text and the translations of the poems, but unfortunately this just didn't work for me.

Ananda Devi has immense power. Her novel Eve Out of Her Ruins had a profound impact on me, with its dark, deeply poetic and gripping prose. Her poetry reads similarly, reminding me a little of Baudelaire, but it doesn't move me the same way her prose does.
I appreciate the bilingual publication very much, as well as the notes by the translator. I think this is a great edition of her poems, and would recommend it to those interested in Devi's work.

This poetry collection is beautiful, a testament to Ananda Devi's creativity and artistic talent. And yet I have to agree with other reviewers, some of the poetry has been lost in translation.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reading copy.

This was such a great read, i loved it to the very end. Gave major Rupi Kaur Vibes. My favorite page was page 51. Although it is written and then translated into english , nothing was lost in translation. I will definitely give this 5 stars and reccomend this book of poetry to others.

Deep and absolutely gorgeous.
I recommend it to anyone who wants to travel in the deepest thoughts.

Although this wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I did enjoy some of these poems. The author has a beautiful lyrical writing style and a good ability of making her readers feel strong emotions, but in my opinion nothing too outstanding.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book!

My initial experience with When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me was one of excitement: first, because this would be my first ever read from Mauritius, and then because when I opened the DRC in the Shelf app, I saw that this edition does my favourite thing poetry books can do — it includes the French originals alongside the English translations! I was so happy to see that I could both enjoy the poems as intended by the author, and that I had an opportunity to give feedback on the translation as well.

My excitement quickly fizzled out as I read on, which I regret to say was caused by both the originals and the translations. I am truly saddened I’m writing a negative review, especially because the author, Ananda Devi, seems to be a wonderful person who stands against all sorts of bigotry.

Her poems rarely resonated with me, in that they rarely felt lyrical. Most of the time, the language did not flow, and as such, they did not really feel poetic. I could not feel anything, when evoking feelings and sentiments is the whole point of poetry.

The bigger problem, however, is the translation. The poems were both mistranslated, and completely rewritten by the translator! The translator felt within right to change the order of the lines at times, even though the original structure still does not create a comprehension issue in English; to completely change verbs and words at times, the simplest example being the translation saying ‘a(n)’ or ‘the’ when the author wrote ‘my’, and vice versa (some of it felt like the translator does not actually know or understand French, like when the adjective and noun were swapped in “pure fatality” so it became “fatal purity” in the translated version; to omit certain words from the poems while adding in other words that do not exist in the originals; to change punctuation marks for no reason (like a dash being replaced by a colon even though the dash can be and is used the same way in English)… these not only cause erroneous translations, but completely rewrite the poems! Nothing angers me like a translator rewriting an author’s original piece, which is nothing short of disrespectful and unacceptable.

This edition includes an email interview conducted by the translator with the author, which wasn’t of much interest to me either due to its nature. I understand that it was during the first year of the pandemic, in August 2020, but an email interview is not something spontaneous, and the answers are not natural but tailored. I really wished I could have a glimpse into Devi’s mind on the spot instead.

Finally, there is a sort of analysis of Devi’s poetry, written by a scholar, but this too failed to be of interest to me as I saw no appeal in her poems or the way she expresses. Overall, this book was a total miss for me, and I could not recommend it to anyone at all due to the fact that the English translations are not faithful to the originals, so what you read will not be what was written by Devi, unless you know French and can read the originals included.

[DRC provided by NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers India.]

5 stars

This is a translated poetry from the French and I loved being able to read it in French as well as English. My French is very basic and I'm not good at it since I haven't taken a class in it since middle school and the people around me tend to speak Cajun French as opposed to French, but it was fascinating to see how much French I do know. At least while reading. Speaking...that's a whole different ballpark. I loved Ananda Devi's voice and the lyrical precision that each poem delivered. There was intense heartache and frustration. This is a collection I want to buy and re-explore with a deeper reading and annotation experience than the quick read I had on my phone. I was incredibly impressed with this collection and I left feeling entranced and this sense of wonderment, very similar to what the translator described. Highly recommend this one!

I loved loved this poetry collection! It was raw, lyrical and very truthful! The way the original French comes before the English is unique and lovely. I’ll definitely be checking out more of the author’s work!

Beautiful, lyrical poetry in an incredibly visceral piece collection. Definitely going to be checking out more of Ananda Devi's work. The interview between the translator and Devi gave a real insight too.

"When the Night Agrees to Speak with Me," by acclaimed author Ananda Devi, is a beautifully written collection of poetry that incorporates natural images to express the agony that lies in womanhood and the search for consolation after a tragic loss.
The narrator, a woman who recently lost her life, begins the collection by acknowledging those who wander through the woods "like silent [cats]," desperately sifting through their memories to find some sort of explanation for her death. She understands that those who seek her are distraught and scarred by rage; however, tonight is a rather special one in which the earth has granted the deceased woman a short window of time to explain herself and her abrupt passing before her "lips are sealed shut by the mouth of the wind" once again.
To the narrator, the truth and the ability to communicate such are tricky rights, often ignored or denied by higher beings of false superiority. For the first time, though, she finds herself granted the chance to communicate her truth: her compliance.
Many believe that her expiration was a self-inflicted consequence for "dancing with the devil." Death is an inevitable foe for life and joy; however, a waltz with Lucifer himself can make one’s dying day come earlier than expected. She urges those who seek the truth, though, to "peel back [her] skin," "unclothe [her] of [herself]," and strip her of the rumors many naively believe about her death.
She elaborates on what was the catalyst for her death: her "desire for pills that were delicate and white." Her relationship with self-medication was comparable to that of a lover or a spouse. The pills brought her "oblivion" and a "kingdom of silence," something she believed nothing else could. When she had neither the will to eat nor the courage to survive, she relied on the simple task of ingesting a capsule of liquid poison to "abolish life" and send her into a state of blissful euphoria.
After this discussion of her own faults, she delves deeply into the impetus for such dangerous actions. The narrator believes that she did so to erase the memory of the "moon-wild beauty," a nickname for the man who once took advantage of her and, likely, countless others. She understands that many would perceive her state of death and his state of life to be unfortunate fates; however, the narrator knows that despite the pride he may exude to those who know nothing of his maniacal spirit, internally, he is an "odd one out" who hides his sorrow through exaggerated gestures of self-assurance and innocence.
Now that the narrator has passed, she is able to reflect on both her self-medicating and the abuse she suffered and wishes that during those periods of self-loathing and trauma she had remembered the beauty that lies within nature and love. She thinks that perhaps if she had considered the more potent natural inebriation caused by the dynamic, complex world around her, she wouldn’t have become so dependent on artificial substances to whisk her away from the clutches of reality. She also addresses the women who refuse to advocate for themselves and choose instead to silently suffer. She believes that if women do not advocate for themselves, they cannot prevent these same atrocities from happening to their peers, thus allowing passivity to continue the cycle of violence and misogyny that has plagued women for centuries. To her, womanhood is a period of life to be lived jubilantly, but unless women make strong strides and advances to protest sexual injustices, they will continue to live a life "free but crippled, crippled but free."
The biggest flaw within the collection is that the writing, while very colorful, can be perceived as vague and requires a read-through or two to truly comprehend. However, once comprehended, it is very impactful and powerful. Perhaps, if more collections of poetry were added or more lines of detail were added to each poem, the author would have properly expanded on her main themes without the literature feeling occasionally hazy.
Something that was impressive, however, was the smooth transition from the French to English translations. One would think that the constant transitions would take out the nuances and spirit of the writing; however, it flowed rather cohesively. Also, the author’s use of second person creates a personal sort of dialogue between the narrator and those she wishes to address. Each line, so well-crafted and direct, feels almost like a letter designated to a dear friend or past lover, detailing a preventable death, or, as the narrator describes it, a murder.
Overall, "When the Night Agrees to Speak with Me" is a wonderful read for those interested in writing containing feminist messages, images of botanical and magical essences, and impressive poetry.

This book of poetry is full of raw emotion and hard truths. I found myself on the verge of tears several times throughout the poetry section. I found the ebook to be formatted a strangely, but that might just be because it's a book meant to have the French and English translations side by side.