“Qu’est-ce qui est le plus beau / la main qui s’ouvre / ou les yeux qui se ferment?” Often compared to Neruda and Hikmet for his lyrical humanism, Abdellatif Laâbi is considered Morocco’s leading contemporary poet. Incarcerated for eight years due to his political writings, his prison poems speak from “beyond the borders of what is human”. Laâbi later found refuge in the Parisian banlieue, and continued to write of his homeland from afar. A soft warrior of words, with a constant thread of tenderness despite his hardships. English translations from the French by Breyten Breytenbach, Donald Nicholson-Smith, André Naffis-Sahely, and Michel Breton. With music by Driss El Maloumi (oud), Naziha Meftah (vocals), and Labess.