RENCONTRE LITTERAIRE / Ameziane Kezzar

Video recording of the literary event of Wednesday, December 10, 2014: ACB presents Ameziane Kezzar for "Brassens Tuyac d isefra" "Brassens Chants et poésies" (Ed. Achab) event followed by a book signing Moderated by Arezki Metref and Hend Sad Musical introduction by Belaid Branis It took audacity to tackle Brassens, and even more so to publish him in Kabyle. How can one recapture the corrosive and invigorating spirit of a songwriter who has become one of the symbols of French identity, even for those who don't appreciate his style? Does this Brassens adapt to the climate of the wild and rugged Kabylia? Ameziane Kezzar's aim was not to translate the mustachioed singer's lyrics word for word, but to adapt them, to transplant them into a land unfamiliar with him. The transplant has taken so well that one would think one was reading Brassens in Kabyle, and at the end of the reading, one wonders whether one has read the French text or the Kabyle text. Yet, paradoxically, the images, the references, the names used by Ameziane Kezzar are Kabyle, but what remains after reading is the spirit of Brassens. The adapter thus succeeds in what Baudelaire advocated for aspiring poets: the search for "unity of meaning and impression." If Brassens sang of freedom, it was first and foremost the freedom to say what he pleased. It is this freedom that Ameziane Kezzar claims in his Kabyle adaptation of Brassens's songs. He succeeded in capturing the unique music and rhythm of Brassens' lyrics by varying the rhythms and prosody, because it was also about renewing the fixed forms of Kabyle poetry by distancing himself from a poetic form that was dying within its Si-Mohandesque constraints and replacing it with more complex, more enriching, less restrictive forms. A. Kezzar had already attempted to renew the traditional forms of Kabyle poetry, notably in Aγyul n Ǧanǧis, but in this collection he pushes the "subversive" further across more than two hundred texts, none of which are comparable to another. Brassens' songs are saturated with cultural references drawn from literature, and in some cases, even from scholarship. But all of this is done with the amused smile of someone who doesn't take themselves too seriously, who considers themselves neither a poet nor a scholar. They address their audience and seek to forge a bond of complicity and understanding with them. How can these references be made understandable to the Kabyle people? Several choices are available to the translator: either to transpose these cultural elements into the language's frame of reference, to find equivalents, to transform them to make them more effective, or to keep them to enrich the culture into which they are transplanted. Ameziane Kezzar chooses this last option, while allowing himself some transpositions. Indeed, for Ameziane Kezzar, adaptation does not mean erasing what is irreducible in Brassens's lyrics. The translator's goal is both to make the text understandable and to transport the reader, to show them another possible world. It's certain that the most difficult element to transpose is the themes addressed by Brassens, most often scandalous or simply provocative. How does one portray adultery, nymphomania, and cuckoldry in a culture that has often placed its honor in the controlled sexuality of women? Well, quite simply. Far from hypocritical views of Kabyle society, Ameziane Kezzar remains faithful to Brassens and brilliantly and subtly satirizes the famous Kabyle "nnif" (a derogatory term for a woman). But humor and finesse protect against accusations of vulgarity. Not only does Ameziane Kezzar pay homage here to a freethinker, songwriter, tease, and provocateur, but his adaptations also carry within them all the possibilities of subversion and a hymn to life. Without gravity and with lightness, something sorely lacking in Kabyle society, these songs can be the first step towards a tradition of songwriters capable of describing it without compromise, without nostalgia for a lost identity, and without judgment. Liberation through words is necessary and liberating in a society that transforms its culture into a museum piece. If these adaptations achieve their goal, they will enrich Kabyle inspiration with new themes, and perhaps they will allow for a few moments of joy and happiness to the liberating sound of a guitar. Listen to and read these songs from another time to awaken the carnival spirit within you and rejoice in their freshness. Presentation for the ACB (Introduction by Mohand Lounaci)