They pass through, and see through us (from Ils passent et nous pensent) tu demandes sous tes pas c’est ton sol ? you ask beneath your feet is this your land? je n’ai pas traversé les Pyrénées je n’ai pas suivi la neige pas à pas sans demeure je n’ai pas demandé au ciel de […]
Christine Guinard
CHRISTINE GUINARD’s family fled Spain during La Retirada, when 500,000 people escaped to France after the fall of Barcelona in 1939. In a time of fear and xenophobia, the welcome offered to these refugees often resembled that offered today, both here and abroad, to those forced to leave their homes in order to survive. This history continues to have a profound influence on Guinard’s work. A translator as well as a poet, musician and filmmaker, she published the Journal of a Catalan Refugee in 2012. She has published seven poetry collections, most recently Ils passent et nous pensent (Unicité, 2023) and Vous étiez un monde (Gallimard, 2023). An earlier collection, Sténopé (Unicité, 2019), won the Prix de Poésie from the city of Rambouillet/Association Arts et Lettres (2020). She lives in Brussels, and teaches French and classical languages at the École Européenne Lille Métropole.
