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Born in 1951 in Kasserine, Tunisia, Tahar Békri is one of the most compelling poetic voices to emerge from North Africa in the modern era. A poet, essayist, and academic, Békri’s literary journey transcends borders, languages, and cultures. Now based in Paris, where he teaches Arabic literature and civilization at the University of Paris XIII, Békri embodies the spirit of the intellectual exile: both rooted and uprooted, speaking in many tongues, and navigating multiple worlds with lyrical precision.
Over the last few decades, Békri has become a prolific and widely respected figure in contemporary French-language poetry, while also maintaining a strong literary presence in Arabic. His works explore themes of exile, identity, memory, and the bittersweet beauty of transience—all shaped by his own experiences as a self-exiled Tunisian living in France.
A Life Between Homelands: From Kasserine to Paris
Tahar Békri’s poetic voice is inseparable from his biography. Born in the town of Kasserine, nestled near Tunisia’s western mountains, he grew up amidst a landscape rich in history and oral tradition. However, Békri’s intellectual and political leanings put him at odds with the Tunisian regime of his youth. Facing political harassment, he made the difficult decision to leave his homeland and settle in Paris, where he found both refuge and inspiration.
Exile was not merely a geographical transition for Békri—it was an existential rupture that would define much of his poetic output. In France, he re-rooted himself in literature, teaching at the University of Paris XIII, and channeling his experience into poetry that resonates with anyone who has ever felt the ache of distance, displacement, or disconnection.
Early Works: The Poetics of Exile and Longing
Békri’s early poetry collections—Le Laboureur du soleil (The Sun’s Ploughman, 1983), Le Chant du roi errant (The Song of the Errant King, 1985), and Le Cœur rompu aux océans (The Oceanworthy Heart, 1988)—are deeply immersed in the pain of exile. These texts reflect a personal, often melancholic engagement with the theme of loss—not only of homeland, but also of cultural continuity, identity, and voice.
His lyrical style is marked by both personal intimacy and ornate language, weaving memory, myth, and metaphor into a delicate yet intense emotional tapestry. The landscapes of North Africa—its deserts, sunlit fields, and turbulent history—are evoked not just as physical spaces but as haunted geographies of the heart.
In these early works, Békri grapples with the feeling of being caught between worlds: neither fully at home in the French metropolis, nor able to return to the Tunisia of his past.
Transformation: From Exile to Embrace
As Békri’s poetry matured, it began to evolve beyond sorrow. Works like La Sève des jours (The Sap of Days, 1991) and Les Chapelets d’attache (The Rosary of Anchorage, 1993) display a shift toward acceptance and transformation. Exile, while still painful, becomes metaphorically rich—a condition not just to be endured but mined for insight, creativity, and new forms of belonging.
By the time of Les Songes impatients (Impatient Dreams, 1997), Békri had reimagined self-willed exile and nomadism as liberating experiences. In his view, the poet must live on the margins, not bound by one nation, language, or identity but open to a multiplicity of worlds. His writing began to celebrate this cultural in-betweenness, turning what once was exile into a state of creative transcendence.
Writing in Two Tongues: Arabic and French
One of the most unique aspects of Tahar Békri’s literary career is his bilingual fluency. He writes with equal elegance in both French and Arabic, crafting parallel bodies of work that speak to different audiences but share a common soul.
In Arabic, his poetry collections such as Poems to Selma (1989) and Diaries of Ice and Fire (1997) carry the same emotional depth and intellectual sharpness found in his French-language works. These collections further emphasize Békri’s transnational and transcultural reach, showing that language is not a limitation but a medium for multiplicity, resilience, and freedom.
By moving fluidly between French and Arabic, Békri rejects the binary of colonizer and colonized. Instead, he asserts the coexistence and coexistentiality of both languages—reclaiming voice and narrative authority from both ends.
Themes: Memory, Displacement, and Universal Humanity
Across his works, Békri’s enduring themes include:
- Exile and uprootedness: not merely as physical migration, but as a philosophical condition.
- The fragility of identity: particularly in the postcolonial, globalized context.
- Time and memory: where the past resurfaces not only as nostalgia but as a spiritual reservoir.
- Language and hybridity: as sources of both conflict and creativity.
His poetic voice is personal yet political, lyrical yet deeply analytical. He addresses the individual wounds of migration while also invoking collective histories of displacement—from colonialism to modern authoritarianism. Yet, despite the often somber tones, Békri's poetry is never cynical. Instead, it exudes a quiet hope—a belief in the healing power of art and the resilience of the human spirit.
Legacy: A Modern Nomad of the Literary World
Tahar Békri stands today as one of the most respected literary figures in North African and Francophone literature. His body of work defies borders—linguistic, national, or intellectual. He is a modern nomad, moving not just across countries but across genres and languages, stitching together a world of possibility from fragments of displacement.
In a time when migration, exile, and identity are at the heart of global political discourse, Békri’s poetry offers an essential reminder: that the condition of exile, when met with imagination and courage, can produce not just pain—but poetry, wisdom, and connection.
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