The Unmemntioable

The Unmemntioable joins letters that should not be joined. There is, in this word, an act of force. Of devastation. The unmentionable is love, of course. But in Moure's poems, love is bound to a duty: to comprehend what it was that the immigrants would not speak of. Now they are dead; their children and grandchildren know but an anecdotal pastiche of Ukrainian history. On Saskatoon Mountain in Alberta where they settled, only the chatter of the leaves remains of their presence. What was not spoken is sealed over, unmemntioable. There is no one left to contact in the Old Country. Can the unmemntioable retain its silence, yet be eased into words? Can experience still be spoken?

Erin Moure is one of Canada’s most eminent and respected poets, and also a translator from French, Galician, Spanish, and Portuguese. She is the author of thirteen books of poetry, including Furious, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry; Domestic Fuel, which won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award; Little Theatres, which won the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry and was a finalist for the 2006 Griffin Poetry Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry, and the Pat Lowther Memorial Award; O Cadoiro, which was a finalist for the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry and the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award; and Expeditions of a Chimera (co-written with Oana Avasilichioaei). Moure has also published seven books of poetry in translation, including Sheep’s Vigil by a Fervent Person by Alberto Caeiro/Fernando Pessoa, which was a finalist for the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize and the 2002 City of Toronto Book Prize; Nicole Brossard’s Notebook of Roses and Civilization (co-translated with Robert Majzels), which was a finalist for the 2008 Griffin Poetry Prize; and Chus Pato’s m-Tala and Charenton. Erin Moure lives in Montreal, QC.