Preparations

Zrika

I'm a week away from so much. Which is both so incredibly exciting and terribly sad. This time next week I will be in Morocco, where I'll be spending 2 weeks with my program. But this means that my time in Grenoble is practically over. And saying goodbye to everyone here is going to be hard. Before all that emotion starts up I'm trying to spend lots of quality time with my host family, finish my finals and make sure I don't miss anything. When I get back I'll be here for a few days, but I know that won't be enough.

On a lighter note, we've been preparing for our trip with some really interesting Moroccan poetry. My favorite so far is Abdallah Zrika (one of their most famous poets). I just really like his style and directness. And best part, we'll be meeting him while we're there! The picture above is the original Arabic of this poem:

Et tout ce qui est sur cette feuille:

                   mot sans chair

                  larme sans sel

                          un blanc qui fuient 

                                                                            même les morts

Which, in English is (I apologize for the dodgy translation): 

And all that is on this page:

                        word without flesh

                    tear without salt

                          a white that escapes

                                                                      even the dead