104 Pages
©2014
Publisher: The Bitter Oleander Press
Purchase includes: PDF

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Excerpted from his postface to the original French text and included as this bilingual edition's preface, the late Jacques Dupin wrote: How best to approach this short book, a book that burns and freezes, and whose title is abruptly completed, as if torn apart, beaten to a pulp, by the words: a portrait of pain ? From that point, beyond that point, here, pain is a gaze. A gaze that recognizes itself, growing deeper and lighter when the words that traverse it scrape on the paper. The first word, the point of origin, leaps up from the instant of death and fades away in torpor. Notes from an anachronistic diary, splinters torn from the suffering body, sparks scattered in the air. Far removed from any narcissistic complaisance, this portrait of pain is a constant transcribed day after day from what the body and the mind endure in the ordeal. The realistic notation, impeccably close and precise, opens to the outer world, exalts in the contemplation of the sea or the night, a tree, a cloud, the flight of a sparrow hawk above the walls. The linked chain of crises, of testing treatment, of injections constantly renewed as they project a dim light, provoking the exorable climb toward the light. A decantation that suddenly crystalizes and loosens the oppression. The tortured body reinvents, in order to stay alert, the escape route through an open window and the reconciliation with space.

Philippe Rahmy (1965) is a Franco-Egyptian writer based in Switzerland. He studied the History of Arts and Egyptology at the École du Louvre in Paris, and graduated from the University of Lausanne in Literature and Philosophy. He is a founding member of the prominent French literary site remue.net, which is focused on promoting contemporary literature over the Internet and through live events. He is a published author in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and China as well as an accomplished photographer and director of independent short films. An active member of several handicap related associations, Rahmy is also writing songs for the rock band Gasoline . His published books include: Mouvement par la fin, Un portrait de la douleur, postface Jacques Dupin, Prix des Charmettes-Jean-Jacques Rousseau 2006, Cheyne Editeur (2005), Demeure le corps, chant d exécration, Cheyne Editeur (2007), SMS de la cloison, publie.net (2008), Architecture nuit, texte expérimental, publie.net (2008), Movimento dalla fine, a cura di Monica Pavani, Mobydick (2009), Cellules souches, avec Stéphane Dussel, Mots tessons (2009), Cheyne, 30 ans, 30 voix, Livres hors collection, Cheyne (2010), Néant saccage, avec Mathieu Brosseau, Hors-Sol (2011). His forthcoming books include: Shanghai pour horizon, journal du coin des rues, peintures Bobi+Bobi, préface Jean-Christophe Rufin, publie.net/HachetteLivre (2012), Corps au miroir, peintures Sabine Oppliger, Encre et lumière (2012), La ville en soi, publie.net/HachetteLivre (2013). He was awarded the Prix Charmettes-Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 2006, the prize Lettre frontière 2008 and a Pro Helvetia literary grant in 2010. In 2011 he was a writer-in-residence at the Shanghai Writers Association in Shanghai. He was awarded the Prix Wepler 2013 Mention spéciale du jury and the Prix Pittard de l'Andelyn 2014. Currently he's writing a novel about the topic of migration and migrants, and a new book of poetry in prose about identity and amnesia.